Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 » resources http://www.cslondon.org Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:33:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 Inspire a generation – to greater sustainability? http://www.cslondon.org/2012/09/inspire-a-generation-to-greater-sustainability/ http://www.cslondon.org/2012/09/inspire-a-generation-to-greater-sustainability/#comments Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:57:49 +0000 jonathanturner http://www.cslondon.org/?p=2613 Read more ]]> London 2012 promised that the Games would “inspire a generation”. During the Olympic and Paralympic Games we have been looking at what this means for sustainability.

I recently met with some of the team working on what LOCOG call “look and feel”, which includes everything from signage and way finding to all the banners throughout London and the messages that these are used to convey.

Some of the figures involved with this are quite remarkable. 100km of fence scrim (the material used to wrap a fence with) have been used. That’s enough to wrap a fence running all the way from the Olympic Park to the Channel Tunnel. 3,500 flags have also been used to display logos and messages aroundLondon and Olympic and Paralympic venues.

This got me thinking about the materials they are made from and what will happen to them post-Games. Maybe this makes me a ‘sustainability geek’ but someone has to think about these things! LOCOG have been thinking about it too. For example, they worked with their supplier to source alternatives to PVC and specified that that supplier to take everything back and recycle it. In some cases, they used a different material to ensure the banners and signs were more recyclable (for those fellow geeks out there, one example was using corex polypropylene instead of foamex for hard signs and banners).

Whilst the quantities used are substantial, they would have been higher if LOCOG hadn’t adopted the mantra “communicate, not decorate” and only placed “look” where they wanted people to look. Also, whilst there has been a change of materials from the Olympic Games to the Paralympic Games, only about 1/3 has changed through the swapping out of Olympic logos and replacing them with Paralympic logos. This is as opposed to a complete change. Of course, it would have been even better if only one London 2012 logo had been needed rather than having two versions but even here we have seen a step forward as LOCOG succeeded in getting both of the international committees (IOC and IPC) to agree to their respective logos being displayed side by side in some places. Hopefully we will see this integration continue for future Games so these wholesale changes become a thing of the past.

So, the look and feel is being made more sustainable but does it feel that way and will it inspire a generation? We have been asking visitors to the Games their thoughts on this. It’s been clear that people are noticing some of the key London 2012 sustainability features, in particular the parklands, the recycling provision, the micro wind turbines and the overall regeneration of the Stratford area. Whether those people are inspired to make their own behaviour more sustainable after the Games is still to be seen.

The “look and feel” aspect of the London 2012 Games didn’t set out to be overtly sustainable but various features of the biodiverse areas of the Olympic Park present their own message on this. Our Chair also wrote a recent blog about the unsung buildings in the Park – those that contribute a significant amount to the sustainability of the programme without necessarily being as well noticed. Perhaps there is actually a positive message here – that sustainability can be embedded without it necessarily having to be an obvious feature. But is this enough? Why don’t you leave a comment with your thoughts on this.

Jonathan Turner 

September 2012 

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You spin me right round! http://www.cslondon.org/2012/06/you-spin-me-right-round/ http://www.cslondon.org/2012/06/you-spin-me-right-round/#comments Wed, 13 Jun 2012 10:58:17 +0000 emmasynnott http://www.cslondon.org/?p=2129 Read more ]]> 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 other guise.  Rather than the old outdated model of resources in and waste out, the Circular Economy starts from the premise that failing to see resources as in some form of permanent state of use/re-use is an enormous missed economic opportunity and one which the UK is in danger of missing.  It’s like losing one’s glasses – each time you do it and you go out and buy a new pair, you kick yourself for spending money on something you already have (particularly when you find the old pair behind the sofa).  If economies stopped spending money on replacing the things they already had, and instead spent more on getting better value from them, we would be far better positioned for a resource-scarce future.

And it was the Ellen MacArthur Foundation who hosted the networking event – enjoining their partners Cisco in an unabashed pitch for this new, sustainable vision for world economies.  Cisco have in their quite extraordinary temporary building, a viewing experience of the future.  Apart from coming out wailing faintly ‘I’ve been Ciscoed’, I was somewhat amazed by the extent to which ICT knowledge companies and their partners are seeing the future as one which is so fundamentally different to the place we inhabit today.  The power is there to be tapped of entities manufacturing products and delivering technology, infrastructure, and innovation to re-engineer our economies for far better outcomes for the planet and for our communities. Lofty ideals are fantastic, but as it all comes back to tin-tacks in the end – let’s hope the building gets the same circular treatment as the economy when it’s time to pack it all in!

And so, it was no mistake that we were enjoying the view of the stage for the newest, hottest show in town. With the Olympic Park nearly complete, and the focus now on the big show, it is easy to forget that once the sharabang has left town, the green, the social, the technical and the financial infrastructure which remains is the skeleton for London’s Circular Economy.  It is perhaps a heavy responsibility falling on the shoulders of the London Legacy Development Company and all of East London’s entrepreneurs, communities and partners, but what an enormous opportunity!  Here’s to one more turn around the room!

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