commission for a sustainable london 2012: assuring sustainability for the london olympics
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At EIBTM 2012, we were delighted to have Shaun McCarthy, Chair, Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 who shared some case study examples of sustainability in practice at the London 2012 Olympic Games. A great opportunity to learn about sustainability in action, and its legacy at a major, international event.TRANSCRIPT
Welcome
www.cslondon.org
July 2005
In July 2005 London won the right to stage the 2012 Olympics, beating the French into second position (Hah!)
At that time Heathrow Terminal 5 was the biggest construction project in Europe. With a budget of £4.2Bn the project aimed to transform a disused sewage works into the biggest single airport building in Europe. It is bigger underground than above ground and if it was an airport on its own it would be the second busiest in the UK and seventh busiest in Europe
April 2008
By the time Terminal 5 opened in 2008 the biggest construction project in Europe was the London Olympic Park. With a budget of £9.5Bn it aimed to transform a derelict and polluted site in one of the poorest areas in Europe into Europe’s biggest new urban green space for 200 years, great sports venues, the most sustainable major housing development ever seen in the UK, all of this acting as a catalyst for the regeneration of the East End. This is a bold regeneration project interrupted by a few weeks of sport.
I oversaw the sustainability performance of both projects.
Terminal 5 had an advisory group called EAG. This group helped to set the sustainability objectives and was disbanded. Some objectives were well achieved but some were quietly dropped. When I started advising the Mayor’s office on the Olympics I was determined that this would be different. I wanted an independent body with a great team of people to constantly scrutinise the project and hold the delivery bodies to account for their performance. Nothing would be “quietly dropped” on this project.
A new model for assurance
'We have set ourselves two very challenging
aims - to stage not only the greatest Games
ever but, as importantly, those Games in
2012 must be the most sustainable in the
history of the modern Olympics. Thisoverriding principle has been built into
ourplans from the word go and I am
confidentthat with Shaun McCarthy’s expert
leadershipand this team he has recruited we will
setthe sustainability standards that will
becomthe benchmark for the hosting of all
futureOlympic and Paralympic Games.'
Former Mayor Ken Livingstone15 May 2007
3questions most people ask about London 2012?
Can you get me some tickets?
NO…
Is it really like the Twenty Twelve programme on TV?(This is a spoof TV programme on the BBC)
YES
2012 Olympics
CSL’s Purpose…
To provide independent assurance and commentary in order to enable the sustainability objectives of the London 2012 programme to be achieved and to support a sustainable legacy.
How we operate…
ODA
LOCOG
GLA Group
GOE / DCMS
BOA / BPA
Olympic Board
Chair Officers
Core Commission
Co-optedexperts
UK SDC
LSDC
Gov. Depts.
HostBoroughs
StatutoryBodies
ProfessionalInstitutes
NGOs
Towards sustainable construction
Our visionLondon 2012 delivers exemplary performance and can demonstrate that it has set new standards for the construction industry
Achievements & challengesObjective Target PerformanceCarbon reduction in the operation of the built environment in legacy
50% 47.7% onsite58.6% including offsite measures
Renewable energy 20% 10.8%Recycled content (by value) 20% 34%Recycled aggregate (by weight) 25% >40% [DN: Close out report
says 48% but may go down during transformation]
Reduction in potable water 40% 58%Timber from sustainable sources 100% 100%BREEAM excellent ratings for new permanent venues
100% 3 excellent, 3 on target for excellent in legacy, 1 very good.
Demolition waste reused or recycled
90% 98.5%
Construction waste reused, recycled or recovered
90% 99%
Habitat creation 45 hectares 24.9 hectares at Games-time45 hectares in legacy
Bird and bat nest or roosting boxes 675 381 before to the Games, rising to 701 in legacy
Move construction materials by Rail/Water
50% 67% prior to Games
Olympic Village Code for Sustainable Homes
Level 4 Level 4 (subject to successful post Games conversion)
Health and Safety on site Zero fatalities Zero fatalitiesLocal (Host Borough) workforce 15% 18%Workforce that was previously unemployed
7% 10%
Towards sustainable infrastructure
Our visionLondon 2012 delivers sustainable infrastructure that acts as a catalyst for sustainable development in East London
Achievements & challenges
CCHP for park, village and shopping mall
Black water recycling
Non potable water
Green space
Natural water attenuation
Fuel source for energy
Wind turbine cancelled
Before the ODA even started to design the Olympic Park they made very clear rules about sustainability. They were launched in a meeting with the Prime Minister in January 2007, I was there. Examples are; buildings at least 15% better energy efficiency than the building regulations, 90% waste diverted from landfill, 25% secondary materials, 25% of the workforce local, 10% local and unemployed for more than 6 months.The velodrome was £40M over budget and the designers wanted a relaxation of the sustainability rules. The ODA said no and forced them to innovate. This led to a much lighter cable net supported roof, half the materials of the Beijing velodrome, less concrete in the ground to support the materials etc. On budget, on time and the most sustainable building on the Park; 30% better energy efficiency, 37% recycled content, natural light, natural ventilation, awesome!
Set the rules, don’t compromise, drive your resources to innovate
Towards sustainable events
Our visionLondon 2012 delivers the most sustainable Games to date in terms of delivery, visible achievement and long term influence on the event management industry
Achievements & challenges
Zero waste to landfill
Sustainable food
Sustainable sourcing code
Diversity & inclusion business charter
Mobility services
Energy conservation
Logistics
Materials
Transport
Sponsorship
Ethical supply chains
Integrated energy strategy – 50% less carbon
Efficiency
Infrastructure
Energy management
There is an integrated energy strategy:
•Design out consumption. Permanent buildings only if there was an identified legacy use. Otherwise buildings were temporary. All buildings required to deliver exemplary energy efficiency•Monitoring and targeting. This is an online tool from EDF that shows half hourly data for all venues. The energy team used data like this to drive down consumption but they started too late and could have done much more•Infrastructure. CHP and non-potable water infrastructure providing low carbon energy and water efficient solutions to the park. The whole system is designed for 5 times its current capacity to support growth of this new piece of city in legacy
Food, waste and recycling.
Food vision: fresh, local, organic, sustainable.
Low carbon AND inspirational
Corporate event…?
The picture on the left shows the Olympic Stadium and the funky recycled flooring on the main concourse. Both were supplied by Dow Chemical of the USA. We received a significant backlash from protestors who are convinced that Dow are responsible for the Bhopal disaster and for under-compensating the victims. Dow deny this. I received personal threats, my staff had abusive calls and one of my commissioners resigned over this. This is heavy shit!
The picture on the right is the London 2012 megastore where you can find every type of useless tat with a London 2012 logo on it. Despite LOCOG’s efforts to follow best practice (describe if sufficient time) the Playfair Alliance put undercover workers into 2 factories in China and found breaches of all ten principles of the Ethical Trade Initiative Base Code.
The IOC and other major governing bodies (e.g. FIFA, UEFA etc.) have a responsibility to deal with this issue instead of just going from event to event and taking the money. This is a serious issue that one organising committee is powerless to resolve alone.
Towards sustainable communities
Our visionLondon 2012 delivers a programme of work that inspires healthy living, environmental, social and economic sustainability before, during and after the Games
Will there be a legacy?
Making a difference
Our visionUK achieves a step change in sustainability as a result of the legacy of knowledge from London 2012 and supports greater exports of sustainability technology and green jobs
An example of legacy
www.supplychainschool.co.uk
Critical success factors
The shower and the glory?
So, is the Velodrome my favourite building? No.
This unsung hero is the membrane bio-reactor. The Olympic Park has one of London’s main sewers running alongside it, anybody walking from the Games to West Ham station may have got a whiff of it. This wonderful building contains a machine that takes sewage from the pipe and uses bacteria to turn poo into fresh water.
The fresh water is used for irrigation but is also used as feedstock for the district heating system which in turn is heated from waste heat from electricity generation in the combined heat and power plant on the park. The homes in the Olympic village have no boilers, they are supplied by this system which provides a source of cheap and sustainable heating and hot water 24 hours per day.
If you are a Londoner you can just imagine that your poo could have contributed in a small way to Usain Bolt’s hot shower.
Sustainable…?
“ We want our One Planet Olympics to be the most complete and sophisticated expression of sustainable development ever delivered on a city-wide scale. We want it to benefit not just London and the UK, but to be a credit to the Olympic Movement as a whole.”
Lord Coe, Environment Forum, 7 March 2005
“We have always maintained that, taken in isolation, delivering and Olympic and
Paralympic Games is an inherently un-sustainable thing to do. We therefore
cannot call the programme truly sustainable unless the inspirational power
of the Games can be used to make a tangible, far reaching difference”
•CSL annual review 2010
We believe that we can only call our Games sustainable if we can inspire a generation to more sustainable behaviour.I hope I have inspired you a little today.
We believe that we can only call our Games sustainable if we can inspire a generation to more sustainable behaviour.I hope I have inspired you a little today.
