A sustainable legacy was central to the UK capital’s bid for the Olympics and involved cleaning over two million tonnes of soil and demolishing 200 buildings.
In order to fulfil sustainability targets, 98.5% of the demolition material was reused or recycled, with crushed material being filled into concrete foundations and structural cladding.
Stones taken from the massive overhaul have been used to create ‘living roofs’ on new housing developments, whilst historic stones were re-paved into new cycle paths and pedestrian routes.
Stadiums built using recycled material
The stadium itself has broken new records in recycling, being built from 30% of re-used materials, whilst more than 90% of waste generated from the stadium construction was re-used, recycled or recovered, or kept away from landfill sites.
Similar results were achieved for other key buildings, such as the landmark aquatics centre – which will host the popular Olympic swimming and diving competitions. The centre was built using 29% recycled content of materials (by value) and 51% recycled aggregate (by weight).
But sustainability was defined by the Games organisers as a balance between the environmental, social and economic, underlining the importance of social and enduring commercial value to arise from the estimated €10 billion in overall cost.
After the athletes and spectators have moved on, the Olympic Park – to be renamed the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park after the Games – will become a sporting venue for local athletes.
Olympic Park – a new launchpad for London?
The Olympic and Paralympic villages will be converted into thousands of new homes for sale and rent, half of which will be affordable housing. Along with a new educational campus, a community health centre and new developments elsewhere within the park – to be known as East Village – will form a new community in deprived east London.
The Olympic Delivery Authority claims 75p of every £1 spent will result in investment in the long-term transformation of the area. The execution of the Games themselves, however, will only precede a long period of analysis as to how well the inner-city overhaul has worked,
The cost of London 2012 has been estimated by Oxford scholars Bent Flyvbjerg and Allison Stewart as the most costly since Barcelona’s 1992 ($11.4 billion). Beijing 2008 may have been costlier, but the Chinese authorities have not released the data that would allow verification of this.
Arguments surrounding shoddy execution of private contracts for security at the Olympics are already causing political faultlines.
