Sustainability at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games | Article

The Olympic Rings projected onto the White Cliffs of Dover

On July 27th, the 2012 Olympic Games in London will officially open. The 17-day event will feature more than 10,500 athletes from over 200 countries who will compete in 26 sports and 302 medal events. But when London won the bid for the games, those weren't the only numbers its planning committee had to prepare for.

The city won the bid in part on its promise to deliver the most sustainable Olympics to date . With 34 venues to retrofit or build from scratch, 14 million meals to sell on-site, and millions of visitors expected to attend, sustainability would be a daunting task. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) developed a comprehensive sustainability plan to ensure all aspects of the games were accounted for in planning. According to the London Sustainability Summary Report , the plan "is structured around five sustainability themes—climate change, waste, biodiversity, inclusion and healthy living."

One of the most publicized sustainability efforts concerns building design . LOCOG reduced the need for materials by using existing facilities like Wimbledon and constructing temporary facilities at iconic venues. In some cases, existing structures were demolished to make way for new construction. The new Olympic Park sporting complex, for instance, was formerly an industrial wasteland and will become a national park after the games. Game officials pledged to reuse or recycle at least 90 percent of the demolition waste; in fact, 98 percent of the demolition waste was reused or recycled, including 800,000 tons of dirt. Some of this recycled waste went into the new Olympic Stadium which incorporated recycled pipelines and granite. The sustainable building spotlight, however, falls on the Velodrome. This bicycle track integrates daylighting, a steel-cable roof, efficient insulation, collected rainwater, sustainably-sourced wood, and natural insulation. In total, permanent structures built for the games emit 58 percent fewer emissions than if they had been built to London's 2006 standards.

LOCOG's Active Travel campaign encourages spectators to travel to venues by foot or bicycle With nine million people making their way to the games, transportation became a major concern for LOCOG, which is aiming for a "no-car" event. Two thousand buses and coaches will transport athletes, officials, and sponsors while ticketed spectators will be encouraged to use public transportation, bike, or walk. To discourage visitors from renting cars, venues will have no public parking. Instead, visitors will have access to guide-led bike tours, secure bicycle parking, a bike repair station in the Olympic Park, and over 75 kilometers of revitalized trails.

But an Olympic spectator's sustainable journey doesn't end at the venue's entrance. The Olympics website claims London 2012 is "the largest peacetime catering operation in the world." In addition to the spectators, athletes, officials, volunteers, broadcasters, and sponsors will be looking for something to eat in between events. Vendors hoping to capitalize on the demand for food have to adhere to London 2012's Food Vision . Food must be sustainably sourced to the Games' standards. These standards include provisions that the 19 metric tons of eggs be free range and the 82 metric tons of seafood be sustainably caught or farmed.

Food at the games will also feature waste-reduction packaging with color-coded dots that correspond to different bins. Food waste and most food packaging will go into orange, compostable bins thanks to the use of compostable, bio-plastics. Green bins will collect recyclable plastics while small black bins will collect the rest. Even the black-bin waste will not simply be sent to a landfill, but will instead be incinerated to produce electricity so as to meet LOCOG's zero waste-to-landfill-direct goal for the games.

This is not to say that sustainable efforts for the games have been perfect. Studies by WWF and BioRegional have found that the Games will not fulfill their zero-waste promise. LOCOG had to downsize renewable energy use from 20 percent to 11 percent after wind turbine plans fell through. Though the games hope to be "no-car" for spectators, planners came under fire for the fleet of 2,000 BMWs that will shepherd VIPs around the city (200 will be electric powered). Some critics argue that initiatives like the Kinetic Sidewalk at the West Ham station—which produces 21 KWh, enough to power 1 home—are more gimmicky than sustainable. In addition, planners acknowledge that many sustainability efforts are in the hands of the spectators. For example, only their correct use of the bins can achieve the goal of 70 percent recycling or reuse of materials.

Despite these problems, it seems London has delivered on its promise to be the greenest games to date. Moreover, sustainability is poised to become an Olympic tradition. The 2016 games in Rio won the bid as the "Green Games for a Blue Planet." Renewable energy already provides 45 percent of Brazil's energy, and Rio itself hopes to fuel 100 percent of its public transportation on biofuel in time for the games.

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