August 10, 2012 | Posted by Shaun McCarthy
Tags: energy, health, labour standards, LOCOG, mascots, merchandise, ODA, Olympic Park, transport
Like Jessica Ennis going into her final event; LOCOG’s Games were the final act in seven years of hard work by a variety of organisations. Early success was already in the bag. Great sustainable infrastructure, venues and a wonderful green park constructed by the ODA. Only venues that have a clear legacy use were designed to be permanent. The use of temporary venues has been unprecedented. Long term investment in public transport infrastructure has made Stratford one of the best connected places in Europe. The world’s first public transport Games was delivered by Transport for London and LOCOG despite all the predictions of doom and gridlock. The cheerful volunteers made the experience a joy. I even saw some people on the tube talking to each other! Why can’t it be like that all the time? LOCOG’s spectacular success in delivering a low carbon Olympic cauldron set the scene. London 2012 has demonstrated that it is possible to deliver a wonderful variety of sustainably sourced, competitively priced food and aim to dispose of the packaging with recycling and composting performance that should put the rest of the event industry to shame. Green spaces were well looked after. This was billed as …
July 10, 2012 | Posted by Jemma Percy
Tags: energy, renewable energy
The Commission is now confident that LOCOG is on track to meet its commitment to achieving 20% carbon reduction related to Games-time energy use. LOCOG’s original target was that 20% of Games-time electricity would come from new local renewable sources. However, in April 2011 LOCOG confirmed a new approach to this target through the use of “energy conservation measures to achieve carbon savings equivalent to its original renewable energy target for the Olympic Park at Games-time”, once it became clear that it would be impossible to meet the target using renewable energy[1]. In the Commission’s review into the preparations to stage a sustainable Games (In sight of the finishing line) in 2012, we recommended that “LOCOG produce an energy management and conservation plan demonstrating how it will reduce carbon emissions by at least the amount that would have been avoided through the renewable energy target, in sufficient time for its recommendations to be implemented”. This followed up on a previous recommendation in our 2010 Annual Review, published in April 2011, “That LOCOG calculates the carbon that would have been saved through the renewable energy target and demonstrates how this carbon will be saved through reducing Games time energy use”. The Commission’s most recent pre-Games report (Breaking the tape) was critical of the …