Canada's athletes campaign for a green 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver

Canadian snowboarder Justin Lamoureux is doing what he can to save winter.

The 32-year-old from Squamish, B.C., sold his gas-guzzling truck to buy a small car. He bought $400 worth of carbon offsets last year to compensate for the carbon-producing flights he took competing around the world. Written on the nose of his snowboard are the words "Ride Carbon Neutral."

And Lamoureux was one of 74 Canadian athletes who co-signed a letter sent Thursday to the 2010 Olympic Games organizing committee in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., urging chief executive officer John Furlong to do more to make the Winter Games green.

"Being in the mountains most days of my life and seeing glaciers retreat over the years and things like that, I want it to stop," Lamoureux said Thursday in Calgary. "I want future generations to be able to play in the snow."

The athletes are asking the public to endorse their letter via the David Suzuki Foundation website at www.davidsuzuki.org.

One of Furlong's stated goals is to stage a carbon-neutral Games, which means net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon neutrality is achieved by both reducing environmental impact and buying carbon offsets to compensate for damage that can't be avoided. Carbon offsets are projects such as wind farms or solar-panel installations.

When VANOC asked the David Suzuki Foundation to estimate the impact of the 2010 Olympics, which run from Feb. 12 to 28, the answer was about 328,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, or the equivalent of 65,600 cars on the road for one year.

Lamoureux, cross-country skiers Chandra Crawford and Sara Renner, Boston Bruins defenceman Andrew Ference, speedskater Kristina Groves, Paralympian Chantal Petitclerc and kayaker Adam van Koeverden are among the athletes who asked Furlong to adhere to his commitment of a carbon-neutral Games.

These athletes also participate in the David Suzuki Foundation's Play It Cool program, which helps them calculate their carbon footprint and lives carbon neutral lives.

"Olympics are extremely hard on the environment," said Renner, a three-time Olympian. "Things will have to change. Vancouver and VANOC can really make that difference."

While VANOC has reduced its carbon footprint by making venues energy efficient, the athletes want to know how the organizing committee will address energy use at venues, local transportation and travel to the Olympics by athletes, officials and spectators.

They've also asked VANOC to use its platform to campaign aggressively for the environment and inspire Canadians address climate change.

"VANOC is on the right track in terms of its vision with respect to a carbon neutral goal," said Deborah Carlson, who is a climate change specialist with the David Suzuki Foundation. "We need more specific, concrete action.

"They have many opportunities in terms of the media and corporate sponsors to take up this message."

The athletes find the biggest part of their carbon footprint comes from air travel and the Olympics Games are no different.

The foundation estimated 69 per cent the 2010 Olympics' carbon footprint will come from air travel by participants, officials, sponsors, employees, media and spectators. The Foundation states that VANOC could buy carbon credits for less than $5 million to compensate for those flights.

Carbon credits are controversial because the market is unregulated. A common complaint is what is the point of buying into a carbon offset program to plant trees if the trees aren't cared for and die.

Another criticism is that carbon offsets don't foster environmental responsibility at home. If you invest in a wind farm in Madagascar or a solar stoves in Ethiopia, but are environmentally slothful where you live, how can you be carbon neutral?

The athletes are asking for at least 20 per cent of the carbon offsets VANOC purchases to fall under the Gold Standard, which are environmental projects backed by the World Wildlife Federation, Greenpeace and the David Suzuki Foundation.

VANOC says it will release details on how it will deal with greenhouse gas emissions from the Olympics during the World Conference on Sport and the Environment March 29 to 31 in Vancouver.

"The David Suzuki Foundation has provided VANOC with advice on the carbon plan for the 2010 Games and we value their input," said Linda Coady, VANOC's vice-president of sustainability, in a statement. "We are committed to tracking and publicly reporting on both direct Games-based emissions and indirect emissions from air travel.

"We agree that offsets used to neutralize the carbon footprint of the Games have to be highly credible and that the Games provide an opportunity to engage athletes and the public on climate solutions."

Vancouver's sustainability budget, which includes the environment, inner-city programs and Aboriginal participation in the Games, is about $15.6 million out of an operating budget of about $1.6 billion, according to the foundation.

Some of VANOC's environmental practices included using reclaimed lumber for the six-acre roof of the speed skating venue in Richmond, as well as caching storm water from the Olympic Oval's roof for the facility's toilets and irrigation of the grounds.

"They've done well making their venues energy efficient and stuff like that," Lamoureux said. "We're not heckling or bad-mouthing them. We're just trying to nudge them along."