Environment-friendly boxing event a part of Olympic pitch
2016 GAMES | Carbon credits, hybrids counter pollution
In one corner, the boxers wear red; in the other, the fighters sport blue trunks.
But beneath the AIBA World Boxing Championships being held here there's also a touch of green.
If the bouts are a way to impress the International Olympic Committee, the locals need to show a sensitivity to the environment -- one of the check-offs for cities competing to host Olympic Games.
World Boxing Chicago officials say that staging the championship -- from flying some 700 athletes here to feeding them to lighting the UIC Pavilion -- probably produced about 8,000 tons of carbon dioxide.
To counter that pollution, Baxter, the Deerfield-based health care company, donated carbon credits, valued at about $2 to $3 per ton, to the boxing championships, said environmental specialist Bob Accarino, who has been working to prepare the Chicago pitch to the IOC for the 2016 Summer Games.
Such credits, like chits, are held by companies that meet clean-air standards and are offered to other groups that pollute with the goal of reducing overall carbon emissions worldwide. Boxing officials are also being ferried around in a fleet of about 50 hybrid vehicles donated by Toyota.
Boxing fans who take public transportation to the Pavilion get a $3 discount on fight admissions.
Beijing has reportedly spent $12 billion to cut greenhouse gas emissions and improve wastewater treatment ahead of next year's Games there.
In Tokyo, one of Chicago's competitors to host the 2016 Games, an official was recently quoted saying the environment will be "an essential theme for our bid."
One environmental argument that Chicago will make to the IOC is that its existing venues will not require new construction energy or materials, said Accarino.
"The Olympic movement looks at ways it can change the world and environmental legacy is something they take very seriously,'' said Chicago 2016 spokesman Patrick Sandusky.