Key Olympic venues are being built with green building models, says this article in Red Orbit about the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube. The article tells about the rainwater re-use system in these structures. Twenty-three percent of collected water will be from rainwater, and the rest from industrial waste-water and urban sewage.

Also, sustainability issues are raised: “Apart from cutting energy consumption, some Games’ venues are also trying new energy supply systems, which environmentalists hope is not just a practice of a green Olympics, but also a model for the entire country now searching for a road of sustainable development.”

This is part of the question that we are wondering about: “After the Olympics, the solar power produced by the stadium will be merged into the city’s power grid and provided to local families if there are no sport events there.” I love to hear about integrating renewables into the grid! and, it starts to answer our question about what will environmentalism look like in Beijing after the Olympics are over. The Olympics are the impetus for Beijing to explore this “greening” technology.