November 14, 2012 | Posted by Jemma Percy
Tags: active travel, carbon, LOCOG, Olympic Park, stadium, transport, waste
The Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 has published its in-depth review into whether the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games truly delivered the promised levels of sustainability. The post-Games report, entitled London 2012 – From Vision to Reality, presents the final conclusions through key sustainability themes, with information based on first-hand observations and data gathered by the Commission during Games-time. The report concludes that the London 2012 Games broadly delivered against its sustainability objectives, and highlights several examples of leading practice which the Commission urges future Olympic and Paralympic organisers to follow. Using today’s release of its post-Games report, the Commission has called on the UK to lead the charge in ensuring London’s lessons are firmly embedded into the events industry. Ambitious sustainability targets such as zero waste to landfill and 70% waste to be re-used, recycled or composted are on track thanks to efforts such as meticulous attention to packaging and the effective use of the colour coded three-bin system. The transport system delivered an excellent service, and London 2012 should be praised for being the first Games to offer a fully comprehensive mobility service. Comprehensive public transport options and effective planning meant that the logistical operation for …
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 16, 2012 | Posted by Shaun McCarthy
Tags: Athletes Village, Legacy, Olympic Park, refrigerants, waste
It is some time since I was invited to a slumber party so the opportunity to be part of LOCOG’s commissioning event for the Olympic Village was very welcome. They invited around 1,000 guests to spend an evening in the Athlete’s Village and to stay over in one of the apartments. A great honour and I thank LOCOG for inviting me along. On arrival we were transported by bus from Stratford station, my bus driver let his engine idle while we were waiting which is against LOCOG’s policy but I was assured by my fellow guests that their busses had their engines switched off. Let’s put that down to fate, the one bus I happened to take had the engine running. Bad luck rather than bad planning hopefully. Progress through security was quick and efficient, the massive temporary structure had no air conditioning but it was very cool from natural ventilation and there was plenty of natural light. My first impression and an over- riding impression of the whole event was how friendly, helpful and well informed the staff were. There was always somebody there with a smile able to help. This contrasted slightly with my experience in Beijing where …
June 13, 2012 | Posted by Emma Synnott
Tags: Circular Economy, Cisco, Olympic Park, resources
It was a fabulous balmy evening when I found myself talking with a very earnest engineer about the mysterious world of the supply chain of wooden pallets – perhaps not notable other than to state the obvious – we sustainability geeks tend to stick together on matters like this. The event and the venue on the other hand made this conversation very interesting indeed. We were perched on a balcony overlooking the Olympic Park in a building constructed in just eight weeks – all fine, providing you don’t sneeze or lean on anything! In fact, we were enjoying the ambience of Cisco House and we were there to join in the first networking event for the Circular Economy. ‘The Circular Economy’ at face value sounds like some kind of dubious merry-go-round involving strange job-creation programmes and maybe a giant swap-meet. But far from some weird ponzie scheme, the concept has legs. In fact, it was recently given prominence by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation whose profound report by the same name highlights the value to the UK Economy of making sure resources are truly optimised from the first time they are used (cradle) to the time they are re-used (grave-cradle) in some …
