London sets its stall out for green legacy

Article taken from The Times. To view article, click here

Do you believe it is possible to have a truly sustainable Olympic Games? I didn't. As chair of the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, my role is to advise political leaders and to report honestly to the public on the "greenest Games ever". The commission is a "first". There has never been an independent body providing this level of scrutiny to any Games or leading project anywhere in the world and I hope this will prove to be a blueprint for future projects.

It could be said that building a massive number of facilities and transporting 55,000 Olympic family members and 7 million spectators from around the world to stage a sporting spectacle is an inherently unsustainable thing to do. It is.

However . . .

The Olympic board is committed to "setting new standards of sustainability" for the Games and making the Olympic Park "a blueprint for sustainable living" in legacy. I am convinced that our political leaders are committed to this ideal, but is there solid action behind the political rhetoric?

What about the recession? The good news is, we have not seen any evidence to date of published sustainability standards being diluted in the interest of cost cutting.

The elephant in the room is the level of greenhouse gas associated with preparing and staging the Games. In an unprecedented study, the Olympic delivery bodies have made a detailed calculation of their estimated carbon footprint. They are developing a plan to reduce this by as much as possible and to use the power of the Games to influence way beyond the boundaries of the Olympic Park. For example, the discovery that the vast majority of emissions are related to construction materials, not flights, will have a profound influence on the construction industry.

The Olympic Park will achieve 50 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions, using a highly efficient power station and huge wind turbines on the Park. I am encouraging London to go farther and develop gas from waste to supply the power station to deliver a zero-carbon Olympic Park for the next 40 years or more. The EDF Energy campaign to use the magic of the Games to inspire sustainable behaviour is great. We need more of this from sponsors and role models such as athletes.

There are challenges ahead. Achieving zero waste to landfill during Games time will be tough and disposing of all the temporary materials required for the Games with minimal landfill impact will be even tougher. Lots of fine words have been written about a sustainable legacy but I have yet to be convinced that this will happen. I do welcome the appointment of Baroness Ford as chair of the new Olympic Park Legacy Company, her track record at English Partnerships is impressive.

It is not possible to set new standards by just doing a good job. It is necessary for those standards to be adopted by somebody else. The United Kingdom must learn from the successes and mistakes of the "most sustainable Games" to have a profound impact on a variety of sectors from construction to catering, from transport to sport.

I now believe it is possible for the Games to be truly sustainable but this is a marathon, not a sprint, and the finish line is still a long way off.

Going green

• EDF Energy's programme for greener schools aims to reach 2.5m children by 2012
• Green Britain Day promotes more environmentally-friendly habits such as switching off TVs, swapping clothes or making short journeys by foot or bike
• Olympic stadium built with a quarter recycled aggregate concrete
• Press/broadcast centre to have 2,500m square living roof
• Bird and bat nesting boxes in handball arena and stadium
• Aquatics centre to be HFC-free

 

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