Environmental Factors, Impacts and Legacies of London Olympics 2012

This presentation discusses the positive and negative impacts of the London Olympics 2012 on the environment. It explores the environmental factors associated with the event and provides a critical analysis of their consequences. The presentation also highlights the environmental legacies of the Olympics and their significance.

E N V I R O N M E N TA L
FA C T O R S , I M PA C T S
A N D L E G A C I E S O F
L O N D O N O LY M P I C S
2 0 1 2

INTRODUCTION
• Mega Event is defined as one of the most unique sports which occur
one time and is related to specific place where it takes place such as
London Olympic Games in 2012
• The London Olympics have created various positive and negative
impacts on the environment which is complex in nature to be judged
(Clark et al. 2017)
• The mega events are creating huge negative impacts on the host cities
as there is inclusion of community displacement and crowding
disruptions in the normal life of the human beings.
• In the respective presentation, the positive and negative consequences
of mega events will be discussed along with critical analysis on
environmental factors.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
• The different environmental impacts of the mega sporting events have been grabbing
increasing attention.
• However, it needs to be understood that these different events always flag the importance of the
environmental as well as socio-economic legacy components (Cantelon and Letters 2000).
• It can be considered quite difficult to assess in quantitative terms the impact of these events
however an attempt for the same can be made.

• The environmental factors can be stated to be the factors like the :

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
ASSOCIATED WITH EVENTS
• According to the United
Nations Environment Program reports, the
different sporting events and facilities often make
use of a large amount of energy and tend to
contribute to various environmental consequences
like the follows:
• Air Pollution
• Greenhouse gas emission
• Waste generation (ODA. 2007)
• Habitat and biodiversity loss and
• Excess use of general environmental resources

IN RELATION TO THE
LONDON OLYMPICS 2012
• According to Holmes, Nichols and Ralston (2018), although the different mega events
like the London Olympics 2012 or the National games lead to the overall development of
the environment and tend to contribute to the economic growth of the overall country at
large, however, it leads to a loss of livelihood for many.
• WWF (2006) states that, as a larger area is required for the games, it leads to a loss of
biodiversity as various plants have to be removed to meet the housing needs and in
addition to this, there exists water diversity and other such issues as well.
• In addition to this, the London Olympics, 2012, had a set of Environmental Legacies
which it had stated and defined for itself thus calling the Olympics- Green Olympics

CASE STUDY: LONDON SUMMER OLYMPIC
GAMES IN 2012
• Over more than 200 countries which have been competed
in the year 2012, Olympic Games in London have been
one of the huge success in the entire world
• The ticket to opening cost of the ceremony is USD $3.139
and the city tried paying USD $758M in the cost of
construction and earned more than USD $2.569M in
broadcast revenues
• More than twenty million people visited the city and $14
billion was generated and there were more than four billion
people watched the opening ceremonies on the television

IMPACT OF HOSTING SUCH EVENTS
ON LOCAL NATIONAL GLOBAL SCALE
• The prestigious Olympic Games helps in representing unity and pride
around the globe.
• The games try to bring together the leading athletes from around the
world and there are millions of spectators watch in awe as they
represent their home countries and they try to compete for the glory of
bringing home the medals which will be beneficial for their image
• The Olympic Games are anticipated global event wherein thousands
of experts try to scrutinize and analyse the place they take
• Improved means of transportation helps in reaching the mass media
rendered the Olympic Games accessible to people all over the world

CONTD….
• The Olympic Games are the extreme magnitudes of the
different Games which has been made them in greatest events
in sports competition and this is one of the major tools for the
economic development of the country
• The Olympic Games represent the huge businesses and the
overall revenue is being generated through TV broadcasting
and other sponsorships
• The hosting of the Olympic Games helps in stimulating overall
economic growth which is relatively new in nature. The Games
have tried in increasing the global importance over the last few
years which is catching the eyes of the global business leaders

CONTD….
• On the other hand, the Olympic Games comes with
gigantic pricing tag for the security and the infrastructure
and there is no guarantee for generating profit
• There is incurrence of sheer cost along with various
challenges related to infrastructure as there is
involvement of fear and security (Ritchie, Chien and
Shipway 2018)
• There are different violations of the human rights which
affected the overall efficiency of the organization in a
negative manner

KEY ENVIRONMENTAL
LEGACIES OF LONDON
OLYMPICS• The London 2012 Olympics had placed the concept of
sustainability firmly at its bid. The concept was fondly
known as the `A one Planet 2012`.
• The London Olympics of 2012, aimed to focus largely on
the following issues:
– combating climate change
– reducing waste
– enhancing biodiversity
– promoting inclusion and
– encouraging healthy living.
• In addition to this, the games set up a commission for a
Sustainable London to monitor on the same.

SOME CRUCIAL STATISTICAL
FACTSAccording to the executive report on the London 2012 Olympics , around 31 out of the 39 sustainability related objectives
have been achieved. Some of these Olympic facts comprised of the following statements :
• The Olympic games were successfully able to reuse, reduce, recycle and compost around 62% of the waste.
• Approximately, 100% of the waste was diverted from the landfill.
• Bbc.com (2018) stated that around 86% of the Olympic Park visitors generally travelled by train causing less pollution due
to the different vehicles.
• Around 15.5 million sustainability sourced meals were sourced to them.
• Moreover, there has been a 29% increase in the number of cyclists in Central London during the Olympic Games as
compared to the same period of 2011.

• Some of the key successes and legacies of the London 2012 Olympics has been as follows:
– The particular London Olympics has an aim to be the greenest Olympics and the games even set up a
commission in relation to the same in order to check whether their sustainability goals will be
successfully fulfilled or not.
– The main motto of the London Olympics 2012 was to ensure that minimise the impact the different
Olympic games on environment, the planet and the people.
– In this way, Commission chairman Shaun McCarthy aimed to ensure that London sets considerably high
standards for the different Olympic games which will take place.
– The venues of the Olympic games were made of recycled materials and they even made use of the
disused gas pipes in the Olympic Stadium.
– Moreover, they made use of an area which could be regenerated and did not aim to cause any harm to the
wildlife and maintained the public transport as well successfully.

• According to Bbc.com (2018) , London became the first
Summer Host city which planned to include
environmental aspects as well.
• LOCOG took a large number of initiatives in order to
ensure that the Games would be environmentally friendly
in nature.
• The different plans as made by the LOCOG are as
follows:
• They made use of the venues which already existed in the
United Kingdom.
• They made the permanent structures which could be used
later on even after the games.
• LOCOG aimed to maintain its legacy by ensuring that
they would use these games as a catalyst and involve
themselves in improvement of the quality of life ,
regeneration and promoting sustainability throughout the
United Kingdom.

WAS THE LEGACY
SUCCESSFUL?• However, according to various critiques, the London
Olympic somehow failed to achieve its legacy. The
different reasons, this happened, can be given as
follows:
• The games produced around 3.4 million tonnes of the
Carbon Dioxide (CO2). In lieu of this, the total
emission of the United Kingdom was around 550
millions
• The carbon offsets failed considerably.
• There took place various embarrassing PR gaffes.
• In addition to this, there took place various traffic and
transportation chaos.

POSITIVE IMPACTS OF OLYMPIC
GAMES LONDON 2012
• Increase in the overall sustainability is one of the main positive impacts of the
Olympic Games as the sustainability was one of the major commitments during
London Games and this has built overall design in such a manner
• In the executive report of the Olympics Games, this was being noticed that 31
out of 39 sustainability related objectives were achieved wherein the different
statistics have been revealed such as:
More than 62% of the waste were reused and recycled in a positive manner
More than 86% of the different visitors travelled to London by rail which
reduced the pollution to a great percentage
More than 15.5 million sustainability sourced meals and more than 90% of the
waste diverted from landfill

CONTD…
• Furthermore, this has been noticed that there has been huge
increase in the cyclists in London which helped in
improving the overall environmental aspects in a positive
manner
• There was composting of the organic waste which helped in
improving the overall scenario in a positive manner in
comparison to 2011
• The prize medals which was being offered to the different
winners in the Olympic Games were made from the recycled
materials which helped in improving the environmental
situation positively

NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF
OLYMPIC GAMES LONDON
2012• It has been calculated that more than 28500 athletes along with the
different staffs will be carried on planes which has resulted in large
amount of emissions of carbon in the environment in a negative manner
• There was more than 17000 tonnes of the waste which was produced
and this affected the overall environmental condition in London in a
negative manner
• Due to the huge consumption of the fuel in the London Olympics, this
was being seen that there was huge pollution that led to the different
kinds of negative effects on the health of the individuals

CONTD….
• Transportation chaos is one of the other aspects which had
taken place in London Olympics 2012 wherein there was
increased global fight emissions.
• Furthermore, the estimated total emissions which was being
released into the atmosphere was more than 700 thousand
tons.
• The alleged carbon neutral Olympic Flame have received
criticism after being flown from Athens to UK

CONCLUSION
• This can be concluded that London faced various
environmental issues while organizing the Olympic Games in
the year 2012 which affected the overall stability of the
environment in a negative manner
• There are various reasons which are required to be considered
while implementing the overall Olympic Games in a positive
or negative manner
• Furthermore., there were different positive impacts of the
Olympic Games which led to the overall creation of stable
environment effectively
• The different legacy of the Olympic Games can be taken into
account as to solve the problems in a positive manner

RECOMMENDATIONS
• Hence, after the analysis, it can be stated that although the London Olympics
2020 aimed to make considerable changes, it was not completely successful
and with respect to this, the following recommendations are being made:
• Better utilisation of resources
• Designing sustainable games
• Holding the games at a remote area
• Involving better PR activities

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