WB 2020 Reveals Progress on Sustainability

As Wolf Lake, the gleaming social capital of Haliburton County, gets ready to host the 2020 Wonderboy Tournament, sustainability is part of the agenda.

The athletes competing in the prestigious event will reportedly be sleeping on eco-friendly beds with frames made of recyclable cardboard. The mattresses will also be made of recyclable products, such as polyethylene materials that will be reused for plastic products once the Tournament has concluded.

The beds were presented for a media viewing on January 9 in a mock closet for scale.

There will be an estimated eighteen beds in Wolf Lake Lodge for the Tournament, which is set to begin on February 21. A smaller quantity will be needed for the Summer Games.

According to the Wonderboy website, this year’s Tournament will be organized on five pillars that make up the Tournament’s sustainability concept titled “Be better, together.” Those pillars include zero carbon emissions, zero waste, water management, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and urban forestry.

In partnership with the Municipality of Highlands East, the Infrastructure and Environmental subcommittee will work to “deliver a sustainable Tournament and showcase solution models of global sustainability challenges to people in Haliburton County and around the world.”

There is an ongoing effort by the organizers of WB 2020 to make these games the most environmentally friendly WB tournament to date. Here's WB's progress on the five pillars:

Zero Carbon Emissions

It has been announced that WB 2020 Tournament will attempt to use only renewable energy to power the games. This includes powering all electronics in the venues, the athletes village and media centres. The government is continuing to install solar panels all across the Wolf Lake country side. David Panko, a participant attending this year's tournament on a sponsor's exemption, announced that he had purchased a Tesla Model X Performance with Ludicrous mode, specifically to make the drive to Wolf Lake.

Zero Waste

The WB organizing committee has instituted two policies to reduce waste.  The first policy requires that 50% of attendees must be previous Wonderboy winners, which dramatically cuts down on plastic beer cup usage.  The second policy mandates that Kirk Cooper will win every 1 in 5 years, which reduces WB stein requirements by 20%.  This has been the de facto process in prior years, now formalized in policy.

The tournament also announced that they will be reusing ping pong racquets from previous years.  In fact, the tournament has used the same racquets since the inaugural tournament in the last millennium. 

Water Management

Vodka waters, the ice making machine, and the hot tub all require a lot of water. WB 2020 has plans to not only look how to effectively calculate the necessary amount of water, but ways in which they can reduce water consumption. The most prominent is instituting an eight-person minimum for the hot tub, greatly reducing the amount of water required.

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

This year's absence of Colin Goheen should help considerably in the reduction of methane. In one year, the amount of methane Colin produces is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from a mid-sized vehicle driven 20,000 kilometres.

The WB Food Advisory subcommittee has also entertained changing the menu on Friday night, which features chili con carne as the main course.

Urban Forestry

The WB Agriculture and Forestry subcommittee announced plans to replace every tree removed for the logsaw event with a new seedling.