A blueprint for sustainability management
Sustainability has been central to the wider London 2012 legacy. From the start, London 2012 was seen as a unique opportunity to demonstrate sustainability on an unprecedented scale and change the way major events integrate it into management and decision-making. One of the main results was the creation of a series of sustainability management tools that became a blueprint for the event industry.
London 2012 was the inspiration for the development of ISO 20121, the first certifiable international Sustainability Management Systems standard. Both the London 2012 Organising Committee and the Olympic Delivery Authority (Transport Operations) were third-party certified to the standard shortly after its launch in June 2012. Since then, other organising committees – Rio 2016, PyeongChang 2018, Tokyo 2020, Beijing 2022 and the candidature committee of Paris 2024, plus many other sports, culture and business event organisations – have been third-party certified to ISO 20121.
In collaboration with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and a number of international partners, including the IOC, London 2012 supported the development of an Event Organisers Sector Supplement of the GRI sustainability reporting guidelines. London 2012 applied this internationally recognised framework for its annual sustainability reports issued in spring 2011 and 2012. The Sector Supplement has since been updated to align with the GRI G4 Guidelines and is issued as the “Event Organisers Sector Disclosures”. These have since been used by many major events, including other Olympic Games editions such as Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
London 2012 also played a key role in the development of a robust methodology to account for carbon emissions of major events. The methodology was later adopted by Rio 2016 and, in 2019, further developed by the IOC into a consistent methodology for the measurement of the carbon emissions of the Olympic Games, which is being taken forward by Paris 2024.
Measuring the carbon footprint for an event the nature and size of the Olympic Games presents particular challenges. At the time of London 2012 there was little available information upon which to base an effective and measurable carbon management strategy. To overcome this knowledge gap, London 2012 developed a new forward-looking methodology. This estimated likely carbon emissions, so that the OCOG could revise operational plans based on projected carbon savings. This methodology comprised some other important innovations. First, it accounted for all Games-related emissions covering the seven years from host election to the end of the Games – without amortising them over the lifetime of the permanent venues. Second, it included embodied carbon, not simply emissions from energy in use. Third, it defined a hierarchy to minimise the footprint through emission avoidance, reduction, substitution measures and compensation.
London 2012 also developed a comprehensive sustainable sourcing code and a process to integrate sustainability into its procurement governance model, which was an intrinsic part of the definition of value for money. This was predicated on providing a framework for suppliers to follow, rather than a prescriptive set of rules. Importantly, the Code was included as a contractual obligation on all deals the Organising Committee entered into, including sponsorship, licensing and conventional supply deals. This code has been used as an inspiration by other major events and businesses.