May 29, 2009 | Posted by Shaun McCarthy
Tags: Aquatic Centre, refrigerants
It is good to see that the ODA have risen to our challenge to review their chilling options for the Aquatic Centre. It was simply not acceptable to assume that HFC refrigerants with 2,000 times the global warming impact of CO2 could be used in the most iconic building in the “most sustainable Games ever”. There is no decision yet but it is good to see that they are examining the options. We have seen the case for chilling in the velodrome and we accept that there is a strong case for HFCs here. The building has many sustainable features including low embodied impacts and mostly natural cooling. The cooling load is very small compared to other venues. But what about the other venues? The ODA has fantastic process for managing their objectives but there is no policy for refrigerants despite our recommendation that there should be in our report of November 2007. In this case designers will revert to type and design things the way they always have done. We think it is time for the ODA to declare a “chiller amnesty” with their designers to establish exactly what is planned. It should be possible to look at these
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May 8, 2009 | Posted by Shaun McCarthy
In my role as Chair of the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 I have the pleasure of presenting our annual report today. It is a big read and addresses many issues but the central theme for me is the level of expectation for “the most sustainable games ever”. The London 2012 Games will be staged in the year that the objectives set by the Kyoto summit are expected to be achieved. It will probably also be the year of the next Earth Summit. The opportunity to show what can be done is too good to miss, failure is too horrible to contemplate. Two particular quotes come to mind, one from Lord Coe, the chair of LOCOG “London 2012 will set new standards of sustainability…” and from Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell “The Olympic Park will be a blueprint for sustainable living”. The role of the commission is to put these promises to the test and report independently to the public and our political leaders. Along with my small team of 3 staff and advised by 11 commissioners I have spent the last 4 months looking in detail at these questions. During this time we interviewed 40 senior people, referenced 43
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