EXPLAINER: Olympics show complexity of sustainability claims

To stage the Winter Games in the Chinese capital, organizers embarked on a massive public works campaign, constructing new venues and piping millions of gallons of water up into the arid surrounding mountains to create fake snow for ski competitions

BEIJING -- To stage the Winter Games in the Chinese capital, organizers embarked on a massive public works campaign, constructing new venues and piping millions of gallons of water up into the arid surrounding mountains to create fake snow for ski competitions.

And then they proclaimed these to be the most sustainable Olympics in history.

How can both these things be true?

The seeming contradiction shows the difficulties of sorting spin from genuine achievements as countries and companies seek to burnish their environmental credentials.