London 2012 Unveils Sustainability Plan

London 2012 unveiled its sustainability plan Monday - Towards A One Planet 2012 - intended to be a wide-ranging look at how London 2012 is ensuring that all aspects of its preparation and staging of the Games are undertaken in a sustainable way.

There are five themes to the plan – climate change, waste, biodiversity, inclusions and health living. The plan also sets out how these themes will be achieved in the preparation, staging, and the legacy of the Games. The five themes and the entire document have been developed in association with the WWF and BioRegional. Among the highlights of the plan is a groundbreaking carbon foot printing study to measure the climate change impact of the Games and identify and prioritize areas for reducing emissions.

London 2012 will work with EDF Energy, London 2012’s first Sustainability Partner, to investigate if the Olympic flame could become low emission. The footprint will be measured over a seven-year period starting from when the bid was won in 2005 to the end of the Games in 2012, and it will be a matter of public record.

The Times reports that next year London 2012 will announce its first guestimate for the seven-year footprint and every subsequent year it will try to bring that figure down as it gets increasingly green. Under the plan new standards for venue construction will be set using world-leading environmental rating tools and there will also be new standards set for accessibility, from the physical accessibility of venues and transport to utilizing new media to bring the Games to a wider audience.

London 2012 Chairman Sebastian Coe said, “the Olympic and Paralympic Games can set agendas and with Towards A One Plant 2012 we hope to use the power of the Games to drive change, behaviourally and in the way big events are staged in the future. Sustainability was an important element of our bid and underpins our preparations and our vision for the legacy of London 2012”.