This summer, London will stage what it has pledged would be the most sustainable Olympic and Paralympic Games in history. GE, a London 2012 sponsor and Sustainability Partner, just released the results of a new report that underscore how the experience of hosting the Games can inform the public how we tackle societal challenges—in transportation, energy, infrastructure and healthcare. Prepping for and hosting the Games, in fact, offers a unique, real-life laboratory for testing different approaches to solving big problems. In that sense, the closing ceremony this summer will mark a beginning, not an end, as lessons learned from London’s approach towards building, moving, powering and curing the mini-world of the Games will be applied to the larger world.
The GE report, From Stadium to Street: What Could We Learn from Staging the Games, is based on in-depth interviews with leading experts in relevant specialties, like sustainability, healthcare, energy, construction and architecture, and with technologists and futurologists (that’s right, futurologists!). The report’s authors also gauged public opinion in London and in Rio de Janeiro, the host city of the 2016 Games.
The report calls out many of the eye-popping facts and figures behind London 2012—for example, builders have recycled 97% of construction materials onsite; 60,000 heavy vehicle movements were eliminated by the decision to locate a concrete plant on the construction site; medical staff will be able for the first time to do ultrasound-guided injections onsite; 200 electric vehicles will be deployed, able to charge at 120 stations around London; (to name just a few). But the authors also found that many people in the U.K. and Brazil remain unaware of these impressive sustainability and technology numbers, still less of their relevance to how we might live in the future.
Only 25% of Brazilians, for example, believe the Games will leave behind new technologies that can aid the wider society. In the U.K. that number is a dreary 12%. Still, more than a third of Britons say that the focus on creating a sustainable Games has motivated them to examine how green their own daily behavior is, showing that continued education about the innovations and breakthroughs behind the Games could help raise awareness.
