The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics organizing committee released its official Sustainability Plan on Friday, aiming to make the Games beneficial for long-term environmental and regional developments.

As a new model for organizing big events sustainably, the plan features 12 actions, which have been broken down into 37 tasks that include 119 measures, to guide the preparation for and operation of the Games toward a sustainable event that will leave a positive environmental impact, boost development of the region and improve people's lives after the Games.

The 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will be held in February and March respectively in 2022 in three zones - downtown Beijing, its northwest Yanqing district and co-host city Zhangjiakou in Hebei province - which have been connected by a new high-speed railway.

With some of the measures already adopted by organizers in multiple aspects of the preparatory work, the plan has been executed to address issues, such as air pollution prevention, water conservation, carbon neutrality, post-Games venue operation and infrastructure upgrade of host cities as well as improvement of local residents' livelihoods.

"The IOC welcomes the publication of the Beijing 2022 Sustainability Plan as it provides a comprehensive framework for the overall sustainability vision of the Olympic Games Beijing 2022," said Juan Antonio Samaranch, an International Olympic Committee vice-president and chair of IOC's Beijing 2022 Coordination Commission.

According to the plan, all the 2022 venues will be powered 100 percent by renewable energy and a cross-zone green electricity trading mechanism will be set up.

Carbon dioxide will be used as refrigerants to make and maintain ice surfaces at competition venues, such as the National Speed Skating Oval, for the first time in the Olympic history. A national campaign to involve 300 million people in winter sports and related leisure activities will continue encouraging people to embrace a healthier lifestyle and boost the development of the winter sports industry.

"Beijing 2022 puts sustainability high on its agenda and regards it as an indispensable element of staging a 'green, inclusive, open and clean' Games and implementing reforms introduced in the Olympic Agenda 2020," said Zhang Jiandong, executive vice-president of the Beijing 2022 organizing committee and vice-mayor of Beijing.

To ensure that the plan is carefully implemented, a clear working mechanism is established where the implementation is guided by the central government, led by the local governments, overseen by the Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee, and collaborated on by all sectors of society, said organizers.

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