Taken from BBC News, 4 August 2011

Chemical company Dow is to fund and make the fabric wrap around theOlympic Stadium in east London.

The wrap was conceived by the architects as the finishing touch to thestadium but was dropped to save £7m from the construction costs.

Dow, the world's second largest chemical manufacturer, will be allowed toadvertise on the 336 panels until a month before the Games open next year.

The company is working on a plan to reuse the panels when the Gamesfinish.

London 2012 organisers, Locog, are committed to a sustainability planincluding minimising greenhouse gasses and waste and ensuring no waste is sentto landfill during the Olympics.

Dow has not put a figure to the cost of making and sponsoring the wrap, whichis made from polyester and polyethylene. The wrap will encircle the venue,spanning the sides from concourse level to the top tier of seating.

Each panel is 25m high by 2.5m wide. They are being manufactured at a USplant and will be installed around the stadium's metal skeleton early in2012.

Dow will be able to brand the wrap with sponsorship until 26 June, 2012, whenit will be removed under Olympic rules due to the IOC's insistence on "clean"venues during Games-time.

It will be printed using UV-curable inks, rather than solvent-based oneswhich create a greater level of emissions in their manufacture.

Dow's UK managing director Keith Wiggins told the BBC it was "actively"working on "repurposing" the panels for after the Games and that the materialsbeing used had a better carbon footprint than alternatives as they were lighterto make and transport.

Mr Wiggins said: "We're delighted to provide the wrap.

"For us this is a very big deal. It's the first opportunity to tell the worldabout what we're bringing in terms of scientific excellence andsustainability."

The stadium will host athletics as well as the opening and closingceremonies. Funding for its outer layer was scrapped in 2010 to save public cashas part of the government's spending review.

In February, it was announced that the wrap would be reinstated and a searchbegan for a private sponsor.

Rod Sheard, of Populous, which designed and built the stadium, said the wrapwas one of the last parts of a four-year-old design.

"It will provide a clear and memorable identity to the stadium," he said.

"We are very pleased, as the wrap completes the enclosure of the structureand gives form to the lightweight frame that supports the elegant whiteroof."

LOCOG Chair Sebastian Coe said: "The stadium will look spectacular at Gamestime and having the wrap is the icing on the cake.

"I'm delighted Dow as one of the newer worldwide partners of the Olympicmovement will be providing it and importantly doing it in a sustainableway."

Dow is an Olympic partner for the International Olympic Committee and asponsor committed to supporting the Games for the next 10 years.

The chemical manufacturer has had a chequered history, including makingnapalm and Agent Orange for the US government during the Vietnam War.

In 1999, Dow merged with the Union Carbide Corporation, whose subsidiaryUnion Carbide India, ran the Bhopal pesticide plant - the site of one of theworld's worst industrial disasters, in which thousands of people died in theprevious decade.

Mr Wiggins said Dow would be judged by what it did in future, not the "awfullegacies" of the past.

"It's acknowledged the industry has made mistakes in the past. But the worldwithout good chemistry in the future would be a poorer place," hesaid.