Green Games?

How about sustainability and the games?

Paul Deighton, Chief Executive of the London Organizing Committee identifies six major highlights that demonstrate where they and their partners have been able to set new standards for sustainability:

1 The Olympic Park: The most sustainable Olympic Stadium ever built was completed on time and budget and to high sustainability standards. The Park itself is the largest new urban parkland in Europe for 150 years. It is already developing a mature landscape, and the cleaned up and re-profiled river valley is providing both new wildlife habitat and significant flood alleviation – early examples of lasting legacy benefits.

2 Carbon management: London 2012 is the first summer Olympic and Paralympic Games to measure its carbon footprint over the entire project term. By using the outcomes of the foot-printing assessment to inform decision-making, we’ve radically improved our ability to avoid, reduce and substitute carbon emissions associated with delivering the Games.

3 Sustainable transport: Our commitment to delivering a public transport Games means nine million ticket holders will experience sustainable events like never before from the way they travel. Our Active Travel program, launched in October 2011, aims to achieve one million extra journeys by walking and cycling in London each day of
the Games.

4 Food Vision: London 2012 is the first Games to specify stringent sustainability requirements for its catering operations. All our caterers are signed up to the Food Vision standards and are ready to serve 14 million sustainably sourced meals. Meanwhile, the excellent work of the Food Legacy Group is extending the Food Vision approach to
other sectors and organizations beyond the Games.

5 Waste: Our commitment to delivering a zero waste to landfill Games is another first for the Games and has required detailed planning, as set out in our recently published Zero Waste Games Vision. The work of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) on the Olympic Park construction has set a very high bar, achieving 98.5 per cent and 99 per cent rates of re-use and recycling of materials in demolition and construction respectively.

6 Standards: In 2011 LOCOG became the first Organizing Committee to be certified to the British Standard 8901: Specification for a Sustainability Management Systems for Events. The standard was inspired by the London 2012 bid and is proof of how deeply sustainability has been embedded into our organization. Achieving the standard enhances our ability to deliver sustainability across all the areas that matter to stakeholders.

Well Done London!!!