Resourcing Impact from Implementing a Sustainability Program

Hi Sam,

Great to hear that the concept of sustainability is filtering into the OLG.Do you feel that there is sufficient understanding of what sustainability means at OLG? For me, it's more than just resource impact, or rather, it needs to encompass other aspects of life in order to minimise resource impact.

Do you suppose that this comprehensive sustainability program will include an examination of the sustainability of maintaining a gaming corporation in the first place, for example? From what I've gleaned, the social impacts of gambling, the income-brackets from which it draws its greatest sources of income, for example, are such that gambling on average decreases the abilities of gamblers to meet their basic needs. When people are less able to meet their basic needs, they are less able (and inclined) to look after their environment, and so their "share" of responsibility for minimising resource impact on the planet (for want of a less clunky term!) is less likely to be met.

The upward transfer of wealth from low-income brackets to higher-earners (or into the tax pool of the province, which is then mostly aimed at middle-incomers) is not conducive to building a sustainable society. It's a fundamental sustainability concern that, no matter how green you build the building or what you print your scratchcards on and with, you'll not be able to reconcile. A full-spectrum sustainability study of the OLG, for example, could recommend the OLG's closure. Is this a possibility? (*Fingers crossed here!*)

Such a study of the Olympics might well conclude that its environmental impacts are fairly unsustainable, but at least there one can say that the outcomes (inspiration of young people to adopt a healthy sporting lifestyle, self-discipline and dedication, overcoming adversity, all that feelgood stuff that comes along with the medals, for example) can be weighed against the environmental costs and decided upon. I'd not sure that the social benefits of gambling could ever outweigh the negative environmental impacts of a provincially-owned gambling infrastructure. "Something for nothing" is what gambling promises to its participants, and unless the prize fund is some solar energy, I'm not sure you can get more unsustainable!

Ian.

Ian Rowberry
Campus Sustainability Initiative
Canada

Ian's comments are excellent. Sustainability has to look beyond physical things into the dynamics of our culture. Government sponsored gambling as an income redistribution method does not get the attention it deserves.

Mel Tremper
United States

Hello again Sam,

Have been feeling bad that I rather flamed your request for help here. Whilst I stand by my feeling that one cannot have a sustainable state-run lottery, I recognise that this kind of response from one member of the pro-sustainability community can set back efforts to at least reduce the harm that such an organisation as the OLG inflicts upon the natural environment in the course of its everyday operations.

So, I'd like to re-open this thread and hope that there might be someone out there with more tangible feedback and ideas for you and the OLG to work with.

Ian.

Ian Rowberry
Campus Sustainability Initiative
Canada