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On track for a sustainable Games - BT helps create a valuable and inspiring London 2012 legacy

Taken from BT's website. Click here to view the original article.

Challenge
London 2012 promises to be the first Olympic and Paralympic Games putting environment considerations at the heart of the Games

Solution
BT has designed the communications infrastructure to minimise the carbon impact and maximise reuse after the Games

Natural choice
London 2012 promises to be the first Olympic and Paralympic Games putting consideration of the environment and society at the heart of the Games. As part of that vision, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has established a sustainability club, with six member partners, actively committed to assisting LOCOG in achieving its sustainability goals.

As one of these sustainability partners, BT is a natural choice. For ten years in a row highly ranked in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, its leading-edge corporate responsibility programme includes a commitment to operate sustainably in all areas of its business. BT helps its customers in the same way with communication products and services designed to improve energy efficiency, reduce travel, and boost productivity.

London 2012 presents particular sustainability challenges. Whilst the communications infrastructure must support millions of visitors during the Games, as much of it as possible must also have a long life post-Games and continue to contribute to London's future. There is also a requirement to drive improvements in social inclusion and the wider economy and as a sustainability partner, BT is leading activity in all three areas.

Converged design
For the first time at a summer Games, the communications solution for London 2012, is a single Cisco converged network managed by BT. Rather than installing separate networks for voice and data traffic, BT has implemented multiple virtualised services delivered across a common physical core communications infrastructure. The infrastructure will support 80,000 connections across an estimated 94 Olympic and Paralympic Games competition and non-competition venues. It will carry fixed and mobile telephony, Games applications, community area television and wireless internet access. Apartments in the Athletes' Village on the Olympic Park will be connected via fibre to the premises, making them early beneficiaries of superfast BT broadband.

Tim Boden, BT Business Director for London 2012, explains: "Employing a converged network dramatically reduces energy consumption and waste, and maximises potential for re-use after the Games. The design reduces the diversity of equipment needed. For example, the BT Hosted Voice platform eliminates the need for separate telephony gateways and switchboards at each venue."

Minimising waste
An artificial intelligence tool, developed by BT at its UK research laboratories, is optimising requirements for new equipment and cabling while making maximum use of existing cable routes and conduit. Called BT NetDesign, it uses a digitalised drawing of the location of communications services within a venue to create the optimum network infrastructure layout. It is estimated that this will enable a five per cent reduction in the volume of equipment required by the London 2012 communications network. Where new cabling is required, BT blown-fibre technology will minimise digging.

Colin Norfolk, from the BT Venue Design Team, says: "This technology produces designs with much greater accuracy than the estimating techniques used previously. It is easily reconfigurable to explore what-if scenarios and proposed changes, ensuring the most efficient use of resources and minimising our impact on the environment."

Services installed for the London 2012 Games will become part of the national BT infrastructure after the Games. Next generation fibre access in east London, Weymouth, and other Games venues will become a valuable economic legacy for the benefit of local businesses and communities. For example, at the Olympic Park, Openreach will install over 19,000 copper pairs and 3000 fibres, using 52km of new duct. The Olympic Village will be developed into 6,000 homes and other commercial developments which will utilise the infrastructure that will be left in place after the Games. In line with the zero waste to landfill commitment made by the London 2012 bid, BT will retain all equipment packaging for re-use at the end of the Games. Any remaining waste packaging will be recycled where possible. Equipment no longer required after the Games will be recovered for refurbishment and re-use. Paperless billing will further reduce waste.

Climate change pioneer
BT is a pioneer in understanding the carbon footprint of complex communication solutions. We have built upon London 2012's groundbreaking approach for measuring the carbon footprint of the Games and developed a unique methodology applicable for the BT communications services infrastructure. Subsequently, many organisations have increasingly been asking BT to help support their efforts in carbon footprint assessment using this methodology. BT has already cut its own carbon footprint by 51 per cent since 1997 and has set itself one of the most aggressive corporate emissions reduction targets in the world - aiming to achieve an 80 per cent reduction in its carbon intensity by 2020.

BT is using this methodology to assess the carbon footprint of London 2012 communications services and to identify opportunities to reduce their impact on climate change. LOCOG is delighted to see such innovative legacy applications arising from its sustainability programme and is encouraging other partners and suppliers to adopt a similar approach to that taken by BT.

In order to help minimise the carbon footprint of the communications services, BT and LOCOG teams are using conferencing services to reduce the need to travel to meetings. Meanwhile, Openreach is aiming to achieve further carbon reductions by piloting the use of electric vehicles for its engineers in Stratford and on the Olympic Park.

Responsible business
The existing BT Sourcing with Human Dignity initiative mirrors LOCOG requirements for responsible sourcing by its partners and suppliers. These sourcing and sustainability standards - based on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Labour Organisation Conventions - are included as contractual obligations in BT's contracts with suppliers. BT is also registered with the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange, a membership organisation for businesses committed to continuous improvement in responsible sourcing.

As a London 2012 partner - BT is taking an active role in Get Set, the official London 2012 education programme and has created three core programmes aimed at improving the communication skills of young people and the coaching skills of the adults who look after them. These programmes are focused on promoting diversity and social inclusion through collaboration- using the appeal and excitement of the Games to unlock talent and encourage better communication amongst children and teenagers.

David Stubbs, Head of Sustainability for LOCOG, concludes: "As a sustainability partner, BT has demonstrated clear leadership in supporting our groundbreaking work to develop a carbon footprinting methodology for the Games, building this into a practical tool to help minimise its sector's impact on climate change. It is also leaving a legacy of community benefits through its London 2012 education programmes."

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On track for a sustainable Games - BT helps create a valuable and inspiring London 2012 legacy

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