May 1, 2012 | Posted by Shaun McCarthy
Tags: athletes, Athletes Village, construction, Legacy, LOCOG, ODA, security
It was great to take our Commissioners on a tour of the Olympic Village and many thanks to Nigel Garfitt, Tony Sainsbury and the team from LOCOG for patiently showing us round and giving us their valuable time so close to the Games. The first impression of the experience is high security, we had 3 separate ID checks to get into the Village and for specific buildings. Nigel is the director responsible for the Village and many other aspects of the Games, his pass did not have the correct date so he was refused entry until the error had been
…
March 14, 2012 | Posted by Shaun McCarthy
Tags: construction, employment, Legacy, standards
It seems a long time since London was announced as the host city for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and those of us involved in the sustainability aspects of the bid tried to work out what a body to assure the sustainability performance would be like. We started with the rather cynical notion that there is no such thing as a sustainable Games, it is not possible to justify the gross consumption of resources to support a sporting event. We can only call London 2012 sustainable if there is a sustainable legacy. We think of legacy in terms of
…
January 16, 2012 | Posted by Shaun McCarthy
Most organisations channel a high proportion of their revenue to their supply chain and rely on them to deliver their goals, including sustainability. LOCOG is unique in this respect in that they not only rely heavily on their supply chain for delivery, but are also part of the revenue stream. Much of the work in delivering an Olympic and Paralympic Games is done through a type of barter system, where companies trade brand recognition for cash, value in kind services or in some cases, both. There are also wider issues related to supply chains and commercial partners. Human rights are not well recognised in some supply chains and the current or historic corporate responsibility practices of some companies could be called into question when considering the Olympic and Paralympic values. To this end I was grateful to LOCOG for inviting me to their supplier conference this week: some 400 suppliers were represented and the theme was all about winning. The suppliers are already winners having competed for the work but there is a further challenge to deliver an inspirational and sustainable Games. I was curious to know how much the sustainability message would be pushed in a project where time is
…
