G-8 Summit leaders will be seeing plenty of green in Kananaskis next June -- and we don't mean the trees.
Summit officials are vowing to make this the first eco-friendly meeting in G-8 history.
Styrofoam cups will be banned and recycling will be religion. The left-over caviar will be composted, and delegates may even motor to meetings in eco-friendly electric cars.
"We want this to be a green meeting," said Bruce Leeson, the G-8 Summit's environmental director. "We are going to focus on the three Rs -- reduce, reuse and recycle.
"We want to conduct the meeting with a minimal demand on resources."
This is the first time the G-8 Summit has had an environmental director. Until now, the events have been held in major cities. Next June, however, the leaders of the eight most powerful nations meet at Kananaskis Village, a mountain resort about 100 kilometres west of Calgary.
K-Country is home to a variety of threatened species, such as grizzly bears, cougars and bighorn sheep, as well as many fragile plant species.
Leeson's job is to keep the eco-system safe during the summit.
As part of his overall "green summit" plan, Leeson said G-8 leaders and other delegates will be asked to practise good environmental stewardship.
Paper will be recycled, and cups and dishes will be washed, not thrown in the trash. Uneaten food will be composted. As well, Leeson says many as-yet unspecified energy- saving practices and devices will be in place during the summit to
"showcase" Canada's advancements in green technologies to the world.
"Can we, as Canadians, showcase some of our special technologies?" Leeson said. "Are there things we can demonstrate, to show that we are a society of people who love their environment, and want to do something about it?"
The green theme isn't impressing some activists, however.
Alane Keane, leader of the B.C. group Co-Motion Collective, teaches protesters civil disobedience skills and regularly demonstrates at summit meetings.
Keane said enforcing the three Rs during the summit is a step in the right direction. However, he feels such measures are "fluff" when compared to the overall potential for harm resulting from hosting the event in a fragile wilderness area like Kananaskis.
"So they're driving electric cars. Will the helicopters be electric, too, so they don't scare away the elk?" Keane said sarcastically.
"Some of the things they're doing are positive, but it's all just fluff. They will still have a huge impact by having it in Kananaskis Country."
Stephen Legault, spokesman for the eco-group WildCanada.Net, also worries that security forces and protesters will inadvertently harm the environment if they clash in Kananaskis.
"If we bring a whole bunch of city RCMP and stick them out in woods, who knows what mischief they might get into," Legault said.
Leeson admitted that many of the eco-technologies and practices he hopes to showcase -- such as cars that run on alternative energy sources -- have yet to be adopted by most Canadians.
However, he said, "If we start to demonstrate that there is a better way, then people will start to think of opportunities to make better (environmental) choices."
A 30-year veteran wildlife biologist with Parks Canada in Banff, Leeson said protecting the integrity of Kananaskis Country is one of the top priorities of summit organizers.
"This is a special, fragile place," Leeson said. "Besides holding the meeting, protecting the environment is the most powerful thing we can do here."
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