Beijing Olympic Village is world’s first green neighborhood

Read the original press release here.
The Beijing Olympic Village is the first Olympic Village to achieve certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system.  The 42 buildings that housed 17,000 athletes from around the world earned a Gold rating, one step below the highest Platinum rating. The residential complex is [...]

Green Olympic sponsor: ExxonMobil

I’ve been watching Olympics coverage on NBC like a fiend. It’s an addiction. Those dramatic intros, that heart-pulsing music, those bite-size pieces of sports footage and that occasionally dorky commentary by Bob Costas–it’s pure entertainment. And let’s face it, I have Phelps Phever. I even friended him on Facebook.
And those commercials! I practically shed a [...]

The Beijing Olympics are greener than you think

I can’t help but open this post with a scientific fact: the Opening Ceremony for the Olympic Games kicked some serious sit bone.
Beijing 2008 Opening Ceremony Video Links:

United States coverage

China coverage

With 5,000 years of rich culture to draw upon, the Opening Ceremony was thoughtful and mesmerizing.  I was transfixed, really, just STARING as the scroll [...]

What the Olympics mean to China

My comments about “what the Olympics mean to China” were published in last week’s San Francisco Chronicle. Since today mark’s the first day of the Games, I thought I’d share my thoughts again:
“This year’s events may indeed be rife with mishaps, but we shouldn’t forget about the “Olympic spirit,” which should be about harmony and [...]

“Develop first, clean up later”: Olympic smog a real kick in the face mask

I don’t live in Beijing. I don’t even live in China. So I’m not able to observe first hand the Olympian efforts made by the Chinese government lately to clamp down on air pollution. But from everything I’ve read so far, these efforts are futile.
And I know this isn’t a new story, either. China has [...]