Jacqui Hellyer, Sydney Olympics

Jacqui Hellyer is manager of environmental communications for the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG).

I was forced out of bed early this morning to have a picnic by the Harbour before work. One of the great things about living in Sydney is that there is so much water -- the Harbour runs right through the centre of the city, with numerous bays and inlets. So we sat under a huge Morton Bay Fig and ate our croissants watching the boats and ships go by. Not quite as serene as camping at Jervis Bay, and without the range of bird life -- and certainly no kangaroos grazing nearby -- but not bad for the centre of a major city.

So I started today on another high note and then got stuck into the environment centre I mentioned yesterday, which as of today I have renamed the Environment Pavilion. The idea behind the Pavilion is that while environmental initiatives pervade the Games, they are not obvious to the casual observer. So through interactive displays in an environmental experience centre, spectators and the media could see and understand these green initiatives. Great idea, but no funding. So I've been contacting all our sponsors, many of whom have been actively involved in developing the green games, as well as other organisations. As of today, it's looking positive, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If it goes ahead there will be about ten exhibitions: the Australian environment, construction, alternative energy, ecology and remediation, greenhouse, catering and waste, transport, Greenpeace, Olympic Landcare, plus a video and a story board explaining why the environment is an Olympic issue. I'll keep you informed on progress over the rest of the week.

Then I set to work planning how to spend a sum of money one of our sponsors has contributed for waste PR. We have four waste sponsors, each of whom covers one aspect of the waste loop: the provision of recyclable/biodegradable packaging; cleaning; waste transport; and sorting/disposal/composting/ recycling. One of these sponsors, Visy, does the first and part of the last of these steps -- they provide the packaging and will recycle the clean paper, cardboard, and PET plastic. Visy's whole business is devoted to recycling and producing products out of recycled materials (even providing furniture made from recycled cardboard for the Games, and recycling it afterwards), so they have been a useful ally for us. And they have money, which is something we are sadly lacking. People always think SOCOG is loaded with money, and we do have a large budget, but it costs $A1.6 billion ($972 million American) to put on these Games, and every cent is allocated. So with this Visy money, we'll be looking at promoting the integrated waste system, and more quirky (i.e., more readily picked up by media) issues like the composting, the biodegradable plastic cutlery, the cardboard furniture, and so forth.

After that I went to my lunchtime yoga class. We have them twice a week here in the building. It helps keep me sane.

Newly refreshed, I went into a two-hour meeting with the rest of the Environment Program staff to discuss all the issues we're dealing with at the moment -- recruitment and training of the environment volunteers who will be working with venue teams during the Games; operation of our environment information office in the Main Press Centre, where 15,000 accredited press will be located; the Environment Pavilion; organisation of the next, and final, Sponsors Environment Network meeting; the launch of the life-cycle analysis model developed by another of our sponsors, BHP, and how to convert it into a fun, user-friendly interactive computer tool. And some other issues.

By the way, the environment section of SOCOG's website has been redone, so have a look. It will give you more background on some of the issues I'm talking about in this diary.

And the last task for the day (other than writing this dairy entry) is to figure out what the greenhouse gas implications are of venting unspent fuel in the Olympic Torches. The Torch has been designed to the highest environmental specifications -- in terms of the materials it is made from, its fuel efficiency (it uses approximately half the amount of fuel used in Atlanta for the same burn time and luminosity), and its packaging (another Visy recycled cardboard product -- why does today's entry read like one large plug for Visy??). Its one problem is that unburned fuel will be vented. We'd hoped to be able to capture it and burn it in the cauldron, but it proved too difficult for the relatively small amount of gas -- about 40 grams for each torch. Now if I can just find my greenhouse gas conversion table (which seems to have been taken by those mysterious gremlins which inhabit offices stealing pens -- and have you noticed that they have become technically literate and now take delight in deleting computer files?), I can finish my work and go home.

Back tomorrow.