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The recent award of the Nobel Peace Prize for environmental accomplishments makes it a good time to consider what sport has to do with the environment. Today, sport involves a great deal more than fans cheering on their favourite athletes. It is responsible for more so-called “mega events” than just about any other organised activity. The Olympic Games and the football World Cup are two of the biggest. Add in all the other sporting events around the world each year and the result is a considerable movement of people and demand for resources. It has a measurable effect on the environment and carries a serious obligation for organisers.

The Nobel awarded to Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sent a strong message that a sustainable environment is critical to everything, from regional peace to healthy economies. Every nation is part of the problem as well as the solution and 205 of them participate in the Olympic Games. As such, the games offer a rare forum for learning and co-operation.

The wake-up call for the Olympic movement came just before the 1994 Lillehammer games, when the Norwegian organising committee requested that the environment be added to sport and culture as a third pillar of the Olympic movement. That year, the International Olympic Committee signed a co-operative agreement with the United Nations Environment Programme to consider closely how the games could reduce their impact on the environment. A year later, the IOC established its Sport and Environment Commission including representation from the UN programme.

Since then, the IOC has become increasingly aware that the responsibility lies with the Olympic movement to provide concrete practical solutions for candidate and host cities. organisation of each Olympic Games now includes nearly 150 criteria for measuring their consequences to host cities – from environmental to social and economic aspects. For the environment, organising committees assess as many as 34 distinct factors over time. They include air quality, land usage trends and greenhouse gas emissions.

For Beijing 2008, cutting-edge energy, lighting and water treatment solutions are being implemented based on new technologies. They include advanced, membrane-filtered wastewater treatment systems, solar-powered, high-efficiency lighting and natural gas combined-cycle turbines that will deliver power, heating and cooling. Some of these technologies will be refined based on experience gained in Beijing.

Air quality poses considerable challenges that Beijing authorities are well aware of as they prepare for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Between August 17 and 20, the Beijing organising committee conducted studies of air quality during test events. During four days of traffic restrictions, 1.3m fewer cars were on city streets. The concentration of nitrogen dioxide in Beijing's air was reduced by an average of 20 per cent. Naturally, fuel consumption also dropped by an equivalent percentage.

Beijing intends to require similar or greater traffic reductions during the games. Weather conditions may vary, however, and there is no guarantee it will have the same beneficial effect on air quality. Some events may need to be delayed if that is the only way to protect athletes. The Beijing Municipal Environment Protection Bureau stated that the test will become a “meaningful reference for long-term environmental protection management”.

The Olympic movement can do more to see such examples applied to other cities. The IOC can expand its knowledge-sharing efforts to include more municipal leaders from around the world, who can attend the games not just to marvel at athletic achievement but also to study and learn from how host cities have improved environmental sustainability. A vast amount of innovation and urban improvement is realised in the seven years it generally takes to organise a games. Much of it will have benefits beyond the 16-day games period. Host cities can be incubators for innovative environmental technologies. They also offer a proving ground to help avoid missteps in other cities that face similar issues.

IOC evaluation commissions will continue to consider carefully the ability of potential host cities to conduct games in a way that is compatible with protecting the environment. The Olympic movement is about more than awarding gold, silver and bronze medals. If we can visualise a permanent place for green on the podium, we will all be winners.

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