Making the Sliding Centre More Sustainable

The Whistler Sliding Centre will be home to some of the most thrilling competitions of the 2010 Winter Games — bobsleigh, luge and skeleton. All of these take place on a 1,450-metre, outdoor, refrigerated cement track. The challenge: how to make the venue sustainable?

Admittedly, that had us scratching our heads. However, we came up with a number of solutions to lessen the environmental impact of The Whistler Sliding Centre.

We began with smart site selection. The sliding centre is located at a pre-existing alpine ski resort. Within this area, the particular site was selected and designed to minimize vegetation clearing and reduce its footprint. Before construction began, the site underwent a federal EA review. Any adverse impacts were evaluated and mitigated under Environmental Management Plans.

Refrigerating the track has significant environmental impacts related to energy consumption. To help address this, VANOC is targeting LEED Silver certification for the refrigeration plant building. The plant and track utilize an ammonia refrigeration system. Ammonia is among the most energy efficient refrigeration substances and produces no chlorofluorocarbons, which contribute to ozone-layer depletion.

Other energy saving initiatives at this venue include tree retention throughout the site, track shading and a weather protection system. We also painted the track white to minimize heat absorption. In addition to reusing vegetation debris (such as waste wood that was chipped and composted), the waste heat from the track’s refrigeration system will be captured and reused to heat the refrigeration plant building and the adjacent guest services building.