The Environment

The London 2012 Games aims to be the greenest Olympic and Paralymic Games ever. The aspiration for their legacy after the Games is the same.

To ensure that environmental issues are at the heart of the process and linked with social and economic issues, a ‘strategic sustainability’ team is working across all aspects of the legacy design plans.

The specific environmental solutions will evolve as part of the designs, but there are a number of important features which will be central. Most importantly, the place will help and encourage people to live and work in more environmentally-friendly ways.

None of the lasting 2012 buildings will be on greenfield sites such as Hackney Marshes or London Fields. The use of what is known as ‘brownfield sites’ (areas which are underdeveloped, derelict, contaminated or vacant) will be maximized. In fact, after the Games, the Olympic Park will be the largest new urban green space in Europe, bringing with it improved habitats for wildlife, new wetlands and grasslands rich in species.

Legacy development will also include new infrastructure, such as electricity generation and waste recycling facilities. At least 20% of the energy (heating, lighting and cooking) requirements of the development after the Games will be supplied by ‘renewable’ sources, which produce little or no greenhouse gases. These will include wind turbine(s), biomass boilers and a Combined Cooling, Heat and Power (CCHP) Plant.

The innovative methods used in the Energy Centres at Stratford City and the Olympic Park will also have environmental and economic benefits. Biomass technologies will create energy which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Gas and a sustainable biomass fuel (woodchip) will be used to generate heat and the woodchip will come from local sustainable sources. Importantly, fuels will be used more efficiently compared to conventional gas and coal-fired energy plants, lowering Energy Centres running costs.