‘2012: London’s sustainable Games leave lasting benefits’

January 2013: The Mayor’s Environment Advisor, Matthew Pencharz, contributes a column to the C40cities ‘Expert Voices Blog’ on how ‘London’s sustainable Games will leave lasting benefits’

“The achievements have been impressive. No other Games had predicted its carbon footprint, so a new methodology had to be designed and delivered, one that included all the emissions from winning the bid to the end of the Games.

As a direct result emissions have been reduced by 400 ktCO2e equivalent to approximately 9% of the annual CO2 emissions from cars in London. The majority of this figure was achieved through reducing the impact of construction and the staging of the event. This ground-breaking methodology is available for use by future organisers of major events enabling carbon reduction on a significant scale.”

The excellent ‘Learning Legacy’ website has done a great job in compiling the knowledge gained by organisers in delivering  the Olympics, on a wide array of key issues, including sustainability.  Some energy and carbon outputs from this work includes:

Insulation from renewable sources and healthy to install
Combining photovoltaic panels and a living roof on the Main Press Centre
Achieving the Part L target at the Aquatics Centre
The Velodrome, the most energy efficient venue on the Olympic Park
Managing energy consumption during the Games
Carbon reduction in transport management
The Olympic Park Energy Strategy
Reducing embodied carbon through efficient design
Reducing and compensating the Games carbon footprint

Previous posts on energy issues related to the London 2012 Olympics can be viewed here.
Finally, the BBC programme ‘twenty twelve’ had an interesting take on the Olympics ‘ethically designed electric vehicle charging points’ and the ‘Olympic Park wind turbine’.

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