For Beijing the Olympics may be over, but for Alcoa the quest to make Beijing sustainable is just beginning. Alcoa is committed to helping China fulfill and surpass its dream for a sustainable future. Unfortunately, I won’t be in Beijing to see this—I’m trading Beijing’s dynamic growth for finals and midterms—so you’ll have to check out the changes for yourself! And don’t forget to think about Alcoa when you see aluminum helping China be more sustainable!
My trip to Beijing has been like the story of feasible sustainability. The perfect ending: flying out from Terminal 3. The Beijing Airport Terminal 3 is larger than London Heathrow Airport’s 5 terminals combined and boasts of a massive, aerodynamic roof made with 1,200 tons of Reynolux® coil coated aluminum sheet. Think about how much the roof would have weighed if it had been made out solely of steel!
And speak about looking into the future; the aluminum bedecked Terminal 3 is fully equipped for the new Airbus A380. Talk about Alcoa leading the way to a sustainable future!
The Closing Ceremony was more than just souvenirs and incredible choreography; the Closing Ceremony was a display of future sustainability:
1. I arrived early enough to stop by the National Indoor Stadium and take a couple of pictures of the shiny aluminum roof—all 95 tons of Alcoa Reynolux® material worth! But they won’t be recycling it anytime soon! Once the Paralympics are over, they’ll convert the stadium into a multi-functional exercise center—maybe I’ll go visit, get into shape, go into gymnastics...
2. Since all the athletes turned out in force to attend the closing ceremony, they were finally forced to reveal all the buses hidden deep within the Olympic Village. I might even have finally caught sight of what appeared to be a Yutong Bus…
3. Let me introduce to you the world’s first fuel-less fire…the Olympic flame! If you peer at the dancing bodies just right it appears as if they’re actually a giant, rippling flame—not to mention, the entire crowd is waving fans that look like burning flames when flapped, giving off the illusion that the stadium is on fire. Now if only we could put this flame to work in the smelters at Knoxville!
10. It has Alcoa aluminum side and roof panels, so I’ll be reminded of Alcoa wherever I look
9. …And it has Alcoa fasteners, which I can’t see quite as clearly, but will definitely keep the bus together over thousands of trips around Beijing
8. It features Alcoa's spaceframe technology—like the one in the Ferrari 612 and all Gran Turismo Ferraris, as well as the Audi A8. I’m riding a luxury car!
7. It has Alcoa Dura-Bright(R) forged aluminum wheels. Nuff said.
6. We Alcoans are all really proud that Alcoa aluminum and technology reduced bus weight by over 1,500 kg (1.6 tons)—half the weight of the average bus!
5. Did you know that a weight reduction of 100 kg in a diesel-powered city bus making several stops will save 2,550 liters (674 gallons) of fuel over its lifetime? That means 3,825,000 liters (1,010,458 gallons) per Yutong bus!
4. The aluminum industry can be greenhouse gas neutral by the year 2020 because of emissions savings from lighter weight, more fuel efficient vehicles, and the Yutong Bus is the beginning of this beautiful future.
3. Since lighter vehicles means less gas consumption, and since the bus's new aluminum-intensive body is about half as light as that of a traditional bus, my army of evil twins and I can all ride greenhouse gas neutral.
2. I want to “test ride” the bus that is considered so revolutionary that it is currently solely for the use of Olympic personnel.
And #1 reason I want to ride on the Yutong Bus …Because that would make me an Olympic level athlete!
Sometimes the best is not what you have to look the hardest for; sometimes aluminum is just so prevalent you don’t even notice it’s there. If you go out and take a walk to anywhere from one of Beijing’s premier hotels to a vibrant local supermarket, the one car I can guarantee you will see (and actually notice) is the Audi A8. The current favorite in the Chinese market, this is a car no one would be ashamed to be seen in.
The sleek and glossy black frame (it has to be black in China or it’s just not cool) is more than just a pretty face; as the first entirely aluminum platform in the world, the Audi Space Frame (ASF), is proof that aluminum raises the standard of excellence in whatever it touches. Audi’s use of aluminum reduced weight without losing structural integrity—the gold standard for sustainable fuel reduction—demonstrating that aluminum can be just as good as steel…but better looking!
I remember the good old days where you had a separate bag—or large box—to collect your recyclables, and how the man on a crudely modified bicycle-wagon rode by your house, ringing his bell and clamoring for your wares. How he’d weigh whatever you dragged to him, and you’d receive around a dollar (enough to feed a man in China for a day!), for your efforts. This man was not being altruistic, merely entrepreneurial—he sold your trash to recycling plants for a living!
But it’s the beginning of a new era…a green era. Take a look at China’s new trash cans. The formerly unheard of recycling bin taking its rightful place next to its sibling, the garbage can. And this change has spread beyond the Olympic village; the entire city of Beijing has had all its trash cans replaced with their environmentally conscientious contemporaries…how cool is that? So next time you see one of the new and improved bins, don’t forget to drop off your shiny aluminum can!
When you talk about sustainable buildings, you can’t ignore the Beijing National Aquatics Center (also known as the Water Cube or [H2O]3). And if watching Michael Phelps topple records has become the new cool thing to do, then admiring the Water Cubes’ ar chitecture in-between sets is the perfect leisure activity. Watching Olympic level swimming in the Water Cube may be really cool, but my seat was perhaps better suited for viewing the amazing ceiling of the Water Cube.
I’ll admit that at first I thought the Water Cube looked like a solid glass sculpture of a bubble bath, but at least I realized the “glass bubbles” were actually giant plastic bags when I saw them up close! OK, well, we all understand the aesthetic value of a giant bubble bath, but, believe it or not, that’s not what the architects had in mind designing it (darn!). Mimicking the structure of foam, the Water Cube uses a series of 0.008 inch thick sheets of Tefzel plastic—special properties: highly resistant to corrosion and temperature changes—which not only allows more light and heat penetration than traditional glass, but also thoroughly insulates the temperature controlled insides. The resulting 30% reduction in energy use is just what the Pittsburgh Office needs to get the final signoff on their LEED certificate! Now if only the building frame were made aluminum, the stadium would be perfect!
4:00pm August 11, 2008 (or 4:00am August 11, Eastern time)
As I step off my plane—having just finished an internship at Alcoa, I just had to rub the aluminum hull of my 777 for good luck—I have officially entered Beijing, China, home of the 2008 summer Olympics. I can only wonder what new forms of sustainability my summer will have to offer me.
At a time when global warming was still a myth and sustainable production was still considered a liability, I spent elementary and high school growing up in China. Now, returning to China for the Olympics, I look forward to seeing what changes have been made to create “One World, One Dream.” I ask you all to join me on journey to discover the sustainability of Beijing, China.
