Sustainability and the Poker Run Event
The annual Kingston-based Poker Run event is a power boat event that involves the collection of playing cards at locations throughout the Thousand Islands. Participants build a poker hand and the best hand wins the event.
The Thousand Islands Poker Run is a tourist draw and a popular spectator event — but it is also an event that a number of Kingstonians feel undermines the community's vision of Kingston as Canada's most sustainable city because of its impact on the environment.
A recent Estimated Economic Impact report from Tourism Kingston/Kingston Economic Development Corporation (see download at right) estimated that the 2009 three-day Poker Run event attracted 8,500 local and 5,900 out-of-town spectators who contributed about $750,000 to the Kingston economy.
The community's model of sustainability, found in the Sustainable Kingston plan (see link at right), includes four pillars: cultural, economic, environmental and social.
In February, City Council, acting on a report from the Kingston Environmental Advisory Forum (KEAF), passed a motion asking City staff to conduct a Your Opinion survey and hold a public meeting to gauge the impacts and community views regarding the Poker Run. The Your Opinion survey appeared here through April 30. The public meeting was held April 22 at City Hall.
KEAF found that the total amount of CO2 produced by the annual Poker Run is in the range of 100 to 200 tonnes and compared that amount to the 122 tonnes produced by a Toronto-Vancouver round-trip flight on a Boeing 757 which produces 122 tonnes of CO2. KEAF noted that "The Poker Run without carbon offsets is damaging to a culture of Environmental Sustainability."
Verified carbon offset credits are available from a number of private sector and not-for-profit organizations for about $25 a tonne.
