This year’s winter olympics are making history in a new way — climate-friendly ice! While ice skating, speed skating and hockey have long been popular sporting events, not much attention has been paid to the ice itself, and how it’s created for use by these talented athletes.
Traditionally, these large pieces of ice are kept cold via hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), greenhouse gasses that absorb heat but can also be hundreds or even thousands of times more potent than CO2. However, in an impressive display of utilizing technology to fight climate change, this year four of the five ice rink facilities utilized at the olympics are kept cold via pipes running carbon dioxide under the ice.
This creates not only a more uniform ice temperature and better experience for the athletes, but a more climate-friendly impact on our planet. Clear Skies Texas applauds this innovation and continues to encourage businesses and organizations to implement cleaner technology in their everyday operations.
