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Inspire a generation signage

Inspire a generation – to greater sustainability?

September 6, 2012   |   Posted by Jonathan Turner

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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 …

You spin me right round!

June 13, 2012   |   Posted by Emma Synnott

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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 …