According to the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG), this past summer’s Olympic games in London generated less carbon dioxide emissions than that was predicted. A whole 28 percent less than that was predicted, to be exact. The organizers of the Olympics had promised to create a sustainable plan and to host the greenest games in the history of the Olympics.
LOCOG had estimated that the events would have generated 913,000 metric tons of CO2e compared to the 670,000 metric tons it actually generated. Construction and staging of the games generated 3.3 million metric tons of CO2, which was slightly smaller than the 3.4 million metric tons estimated in 2009. The games host 11 million spectators, 2,000 people in work force and tens of thousands of athletes, officials and dignitaries.
The Olympic Park, which will be open to the public by Spring 2014 under the name the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, was transformed into a green wonderland with wildlife. What’s more, a vast majority of the materials used to construct the games will be reused and recycled.
