CALGARY -- Holding the G8 summit at an Alberta mountain retreat may not be popular with environmentalists, but federal officials say they are doing everything they can to make the event green.
Ottawa is asking summit visitors to reuse towels and mini-soap bars and forgo frequent bedsheet changes while staying in area hotels during the June 26-27 summit in Kananaskis, Alta.
There are more requests, including exhortations that guests cut down on garbage (drink from refillable coffee mugs rather than disposables) and use fewer resources (write on both sides of paper).
And then there are the requests that will make world leaders, delegates and journalists happy they are not security staff: Those patrolling the backcountry will be ordered to scoop their own poop.
Bruce Leeson, director of environmental affairs for the summit management office, said security forces will be issued personal waste disposal kits to carry such matter out of the bush.
"It's a lot like taking your dog for a walk," he said. "You don't leave his bodily waste behind on the sidewalk or on somebody's lawn. That's going to be the same deal for our own security forces."
Those on security detail have also been given instructions about how to dispose of liquid bodily waste.
"Don't pee in the same place all the time. Don't pee on flowering plants. Don't pee close to open water. Just the basics. Don't pee uphill or you're going to get your feet wet," said Dr. Leeson, a long-time ecology specialist with Parks Canada.
Department of National Defence personnel have long been carrying out their waste depending on the mission, he said, but the concept has been a shock to some who will be working around the summit site, about 80 kilometres west of Calgary. "To be honest, their eyebrows whip right up to their hairline when they see what we're requiring them to do. . . . As soon as it's observed that the DND staff have been comfortable with this for years, then everybody else is right on board, too."
In a survey of 16 hotels where participants from the Group of Eight major industrialized nations will be staying, Dr. Leeson was particularly impressed with the human-waste initiatives at the Delta Lodge in Kananaskis. It has installed high-tech gadgets in toilet tanks to ensure only a third of the water normally used gets flushed.
The survey was designed to help accommodation and conference providers get up to snuff environmentally. Suggestions include ensuring lights are turned off and thermostats are turned down in empty rooms. Other ideas include expanding composting and recycling operations. "We don't take a position of mandatory obligation that they have to turn their whole operation upside down to meet these things. But we do lean on them pretty hard," Dr. Leeson said.
Dave Poulton, executive director of the Calgary/Banff chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, said planners have done a "reasonably good" job of minimizing the impact on the wilderness. But he worries about the effect of protesters who are intent on breaching security, and the long-term impact if publicity about the region attracts droves of tourists.
"It's all very well to minimize your footprint once you've decided to intrude into an area like this, but it's better if you don't intrude in the first place."
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