Talk:Towards a sustainable Olympics 2012

It is the day after the announcement that London will host the 2012 Olympics and sadly the city has been rocked by the tragedy of what appears to have been a series of terrorist attacks.

At times like this it helps to focus on the positives and I have been inspired that within 24 hours of the announcement of the venue for the games a discussion has started about how to make these "the greenest Olympics ever."

Some of the positives that have begun to emerge in the discussion groups (localsustuk) and web sites that I have read include:

"In August 2003, the Mayor launched his Green Compact which identified key achievements that would make the London Games the most environmentally sustainable in history. In the run-up to the Games, construction and other preparation activities will bring new employment opportunities, many of which will be focused in or near the Olympic zone in east London."

"Given the will and the direction, these games can have a positive regeneration impact on East London and, with the positive engagement of environmental organisations, be far greener than those before."

“The Sydney Games provided the turning point in ensuring that environmental considerations were adopted in the planning, design and holding of the Event. Sustainability is a key plank in the International Olympic movement. The London Olympics will have a considerable economic, social and environmental effect in many different ways, and not just in obvious areas such as the regeneration of the East End of London. The way ahead for us now should be to ensure that we all work together from day one to achieve the greenest Olympics ever.”

The Games can and will have enormous benefits for an enormous number of people and by incorporating principles of sustainable development they can even go a long way towards providing a blueprint for a cleaner, greener society although there is already plenty of scope for debate about the extent to which this will actually happen.

However we should not lose sight of the fact that the plans for the 2012 Olympics do call for an enormous amount of development and, whether this is described as “sustainable” or not, there will be a major impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Add to this the “millions of spectators, thousands of competitors and journalists flying in....” and the extent of the problem starts to become clear.

Phil Green has set up this site with the aim that it “could be further developed and used to signpost to whatever anyone else is doing as well as being a space for directly relevant info.”

I would like to make a contribution by suggesting the launch of a campaign to make the 2012 Olympics “climate neutral” (I hope that the use of this terms doesn’t breach any copyright – I think that “Carbon Neutral” may be better but then we’ll have to get the Future Forests people on board for that).

So can we start the Climate Neutral Olympics Campaign on these pages and is anyone else already doing something similar?

I am open to people who wish to contact me directly about this and think that this discussion forum is an excellent way for these ideas to progress.

Graham Randles

Social Entrepreneur

grahamrandles@yahoo.co.uk