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Sydney given a bronze for environmental performance
SYDNEY (AP) -- Sydney Olympic organizers won a bronze medal for their environmental performance as Greenpeace issued its final report on the games Wednesday.
Greenpeace praised organizers for at least setting environmental guidelines but said some problems still remain.
"It is the real world, I don't think anyone expected a perfect performance, but there were one or two areas where we hoped to see just a bit more," said Blair Palese, the environmental group's Olympic campaign co-ordinator.
Palese said that on a scale of one to 10, the Sydney Games organizers would get a 61/2.
Cleanup of Homebush Bay, just off the main site of the games, has not still not been completed, and organizers have fallen short of achieving their goals for the installation of air conditioning, Palese said.
"Not a single venue meets the guidelines where they committed specifically to non-ozone depleting and non-greenhouse gases," she said.
Olympic Park, the primary site for the events, was built in an area where chemical and industrial manufacturing plants once stood.
As part of its bid promise to make Sydney's Olympics "the green games," organizers rehabilitated the site and have included a number of environmental and recycling initiatives in the venues and Olympic villages.
Palese said Greenpeace hoped the International Olympic Committee would take environmental guidelines into account when selecting cities for future games.
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