With less than two years to go before the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, organizers are making sure the games go down as the greenest in history.

To that end a high-profile green facility has already opened: UBC Thunderbird Arena. The arena will host mens' and womens' ice hockey, as well as sledge hockey competitions during the 2010 Winter Games. It is the first indoor competition venue in the Host Region to complete construction.

UBC Thunderbird Arena is actually a case study for sustainability on multiple levels, as it combines new ice sheets with refurbished facility that opened in 1963, Father Bauer Arena. The new arena combines the old Father Bauer Arena with a new practice runk and a 7,500-seat arena. It was finished on budget and four months early. It's especially apt the core of the building be Father Bauer Arena: In 1963 Father David Bauer founded Canada's first national Olympic hockey team with a nucleus of university of British Columbia players.

UBC Thunderbird Arena's rating for sustainability and energy conservation is equivalent to a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System silver rating. Helping the arena achieve that rating: energy-efficient lighting and the Eco-Chill (cooling) system, which recycles waste energy from ice cleaning to heat the building. (To be clear, however, UBC did not seek formal LEED certification; the claim of equivalency comes from the university.)