London Olympics 2012: Environmental Factors, Impacts, Legacies

This presentation critically analyzes the environmental factors, impacts, and legacies associated with the London 2012 Olympic Games. It delves into the positive aspects, such as the focus on sustainability, waste reduction, and increased public transport usage, highlighting statistical data from the event. Conversely, it explores the negative consequences, including carbon emissions from transportation, waste generation, and potential habitat loss. The presentation examines the 'Green Olympics' initiative and evaluates the successes and failures in achieving environmental goals. Furthermore, it assesses the legacy of the games, including urban regeneration efforts and the overall impact on the environment, offering recommendations for future mega-events. The analysis is supported by case studies, statistical facts, and critical evaluations of the Olympic's environmental performance, concluding with a balanced perspective on the environmental outcomes of the London 2012 Olympics.

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.