London 2012 awarded silver medal for green progress

The recession is yet to affect plans for the London 2012 Olympics to be the greenest sporting event in history, the head of the Games' sustainability watchdog has told BusinessGreen.com.

Shaun McCarthy, chairman of London 2012's independent sustainability commission, said that while concerns remained about a lack of progress in some areas, the overall performance against the Games' green targets was extremely positive.

London highlighted environmental sustainability as a key component of its winning bid for the 2012 Games, and has set many ambitious targets, including a zero-waste-to-landfill policy, a commitment to ensure 20 per cent of the Games' electricity comes from renewable sources, and a goal of delivering half the construction materials to the site using rail or water.

"Things are going according to plan, though there are still some areas where we would like to see more progress," said McCarthy, adding that developers were on track to meet the bulk of their environmental targets.

However, he said that the commission had been disappointed by the Games' plans to use natural gas as the primary fuel for the site, arguing there was a risk that the opportunity to use biogas was being missed.

"We want to see more biogas from food waste being used and we're not yet getting clear answers on how that can happen," he said.

There are also concerns that the developers have not yet designated how 10 hectares of plastic used to wrap buildings – enough to cover Canary Wharf twice – will be disposed of.

And the sustainability commission said that the organisers had yet to set a standard to limit emissions of HydroFluoroCarbons from a planned 1.5MW cooling plant onsite, although it added that they are currently investigating technologies that could reduce emissions of the heat-trapping gas.

However, McCarthy insisted that overall progress against green targets was good, adding that the commission would continue to monitor progress on its Sustanability Report Card.