UNITED KINGDOM: OLYMPICS - Britain says it wants to stage the most environmentally friendly Olympics when it hosts the Games in 2012

Record ID: 858723

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: OLYMPICS - Britain says it wants to stage the most environmentally friendly Olympics when it hosts the Games in 2012
  • Date: 5th May 2007
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (MAY 3, 2007) (REUTERS) LORD SEBASTIAN COE, CHAIRMAN OF LONDON 2012 GIVING PRESENTATION
  • Embargoed: 20th May 2007 13:00
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  • Location: United Kingdom
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  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVADX7YDKWK64ZV72LDE5MU90GSS
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  • Story Text: The London 2012 Games will herald a new era of environmental sustainability in the Olympic movement and inspire young people to think about safeguarding the planet, according to Lord Sebastian Coe, chair of the London organising committee (LOCOG).
    The Olympic Deliver Authority (ODA) launched an ambitious sustainable development strategy in January saying 2012 can be the "greenest Games" ever.
    It's planning that 90 percent of demolition materials will be re-cycled or re-used while permanent venues will only be built if there is a long-term legacy use for them. Half of the construction materials will be transported to the Olympic Park by rail and water and walking, cycling and public transport will be promoted as the best ways to get to the events. The site in a run-down area east of the City is currently being cleared in preparation for the building of the main stadium, Olympic village, velodrome and aquatics centre.
    Coe said that while the Games are above all about sport and athletes, the London Olympics will act as a catalyst for enviromental, social-economic benefits.
    "We can genuinely make the case that although there will be waste it will be zero waste to landfill. We will do things that will reduce the carbon footprint and we will do things that will allow us to leave communities with not just facilities that will have a proper legacy afterwards, but housing that works for people," said Coe.
    Coe said that London 2012 was working closely with the global conservation group WWF and BioRegional towards a "One Planet Olympics".
    But the organisers are not making the claim that the 2012 Games will be carbon neutral, ie: that all pollution associated with the event will be offset or accounted for.
    Coe said, "I'm not sure exactly what we mean by a carbon zero Games. I don't think we should be playing fast and loose with definitions here, we have to build facilities and we also have to bring competitors long distances, mostly by plane to London, so I don't think that is a definition that stands significant scrutiny."
    The next Olympic Games are being held in Beijing, China in 2008, a city notorious for pollution. Thick haze from industrial parks and clogged-up traffic hangs over the city choking residents. In a bid to clean up its act before the Games next year, China earlier this year announced it was moving Capital Steel, Beijing's worst polluter and greatest industrial icon from the capital.
    For a two-month period around the Games Chinese authorities are taking a number of drastic measures; all construction will be halted, remaining factories temporarily closed down and roads sprayed with water several times a day.
    For Beijing it's a case of keeping the pollution to a minimum during the Games, for London it's a case of using the Olympics to promote a greener capital city for generations to come.
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