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Shaun's Beijing Blog
I attended the Beijing Games as part of the London 2012 Observer Programme to witness the actions taken on sustainability issues by Beijing and to learn lessons that can inform our assurance programme of the London Games. I was keen to experience the full size and scale of an Olympic Games to help us understand how London can deliver the most sustainable Games to date. I posted my observations on this page to share them with you and I also produced a short
presentation to summarise my observations.
28 August 2008
Beijing's 'green' Games
In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, there was no shortage of criticism on the sustainability front - thousands of people were displaced to build the Olympic Park, while the smog, algae, choking traffic and alarming increase in demand for energy were all pointing to an environmental disaster. However, there is a positive sustainability story to be told here, and many lessons to be applied to London 2012.
Beijing has a much publicised air-quality problem. The efforts to resolve this issue during the Olympics received some cynical press in the UK, but measures to manage air quality in the city have been in place for seven years with some success given the phenomenal increase in car use during that time. All cars are monitored for emissions and the decision to ban vehicles not complying with Euro 3 standards (Euro 4 after 2008) will be adopted permanently.
The Beijing Metro is highly efficient and mercifully air-conditioned. The capacity of this system has risen from 1.57m passengers per day to over 3m during the Games. Ticket prices for the public transport system have been reduced for the Olympics, and free transport is provided to ticket and pass holders. The low prices will continue to be in effect after the Games.
The Athletes' Village tells an even better story. The village and park are zero-emissions zones, with over 500 buses and cars powered exclusively by electricity or fuel cells operating there.
The whole Olympic development is on a massive scale - everything is four times the size of the London proposition. The Beijing team did not consider embodied energy (the energy required to manufacture and supply a product or service) in the way that London will, so there is no opportunity to compare. However, 1.2m to 1.5m tonnes of CO2 have been saved through energy conservation projects and renewable energy. All buildings are constructed to high efficiency standards, and the Athletes' Village proudly displays a LEED gold award from the American Institute of Energy.
The most innovative approach to energy conservation can be seen at the Water Cube, where the “air pillows” constructed from ETFE plastic for the outer walls permit natural lighting through their adjustability. They provide passive heating for the pool and allow pre-heating or cooling to ensure optimum energy conservation. Even the seats inside the venue are able to transmit body warmth to help heat the pool. I am gratified to learn that my bottom has helped to save the planet!
Extensive use has also been made of renewable energy, including solar heating and PV, ground and air-sourced heating and cooling. Some 27% of energy has been supplied by renewable sources. This is greater than the London 2012 target of 20%, but does not take into account the London plan to use large-scale CHP (combined heat and power), which Beijing has not had.
In terms of ecology and environmental protection, the Beijing authorities have invested over £10bn in environmental infrastructure for the Games. This is in evidence everywhere, from extensive rainwater collection at venues including the iconic Bird's Nest Stadium, to the development of the Friendship Park to the north of the Olympic Park. This is a 680ha area of woodland and water for the public to enjoy for years to come.
The bad news? It is not all a success story. The vast scale of the Olympic development in Beijing has been hugely energy and resource intensive. London's less ambitious plans and careful attention to embodied energy impact will improve this situation.
The biggest disappointment for me is the lack of planning for the Athletes' Village legacy. The village is now a haven of peace and tranquillity, with trees and running water everywhere. However, the four-lane highway that runs through the middle of the village - and has so far seen only the occasional hydrogen-powered bus - will soon be choked with traffic. And the broad paths that support a trend for athletes to whizz around on little electric “go-peds” have already been marked out for parking spaces.
All in all, I have been inspired by my experience at the Beijing Games and enchanted by the Chinese people. They have given us a hard act to follow.
This post also appears at www.building.co.uk
22 August 2008
Corinthian spirit or corporate junket?
London 2012 needs £2bn of private money to stage the games. LOCOG, the organisation charged with this responsibility, is a private company chaired by Lord Coe. The government owns the shares, but LOCOG is a separate organisation from the Olympic Delivery Authority, who are using public money to build the facilities that will be used for the games and beyond. Much of this money will come from corporate sponsorship partners. I have been spending some time with sponsors in Beijing to understand their potential contribution to a sustainable London 2012.
I visited Coca-Cola and GE Eco-Imagination pavilions, and had a tour of McDonald's outlets at the various venues. The pavilions are huge, two-storey buildings the size of several football pitches, housing exhibition areas open to the public, as well as VIP areas for corporate guests.
The Chinese people are keen to soak up the whole experience and there are long queues outside many of the buildings. The Coke experience is particularly inspiring for the local people, as it celebrates the stunning recent achievements of China and honours its past by showcasing each province of China individually. Whilst there is a strong environmental section in the Coke pavilion, the GE Eco-Imagination site is entirely dedicated to sustainability efforts of its various businesses, their technology and financial products.
Coca Cola bottles representing Chinese provinces
Each of the sponsors I spoke to were very excited about the prospect of contributing to a sustainable London 2012. The "Green Pound" is very valuable, and the extraordinary performance of the LOCOG commercial team in securing sponsorship in these financially troubled times is, in part, to do with the attraction of being associated with the most sustainable games ever.
If we can combine the intellectual horsepower and financial muscle of these powerful partners, I am sure we can do something amazing. I look forward to seeing the plans unfold once the torch is handed to London and we become the host city.
Johnson and Johnson pavillion - what has happened to it now?
There is a lot of discussion going on about the use of the pavilions after the games. The Beijing authorities want them to be demolished, but many of the sponsors plan to move them to the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010. It would be great if we could design sponsor facilities for London with legacy in mind, maybe for use by charities or other community organisations. This is one other small way we can set new standards of sustainability for our Games.
This post also appears at www.bbc.co.uk/london
22 August 2008
The cuckoo in Beijing's nest
We have all seen the pictures on the TV and in the papers but nothing could prepare me for the experience of the Bird’s Nest. The stadium is truly breathtaking and the emotional experience of being there to see the world’s elite sports people compete is like nothing I have ever witnessed.
I was at Wembley to see my small town football club lift the FA cup in 1976 and I saw England lose to the Germans on penalties in the Euro 96 semi-final, I also saw the England rugby union team win back-to-back Grand Slams at Twickenham but these do not compare to the sense of excitement and national pride which emanates from every person here and resonates in the very fabric of the building.
London will not compete on these terms, the buildings will not be as iconic and we won’t have better fireworks. So what can we learn?
I expect London 2012 to be iconic in its sustainability. When we see the 2012 Olympic flame ignited (Redgrave gets my vote), it will be fuelled by a form of renewable energy which is still being developed by EDF. This, and many other innovations will show the world what London can do.
The Bird’s Nest took 45,000 tonnes of steel to construct, when you witness this mass of steel first hand it becomes obvious that the steel is mostly there to support more steel for decorative purposes.
There are no figures for the amount of concrete used but London expects to use 1 million tonnes and Beijing could easily double this figure. The science of “Embodied Energy” is relatively new and has only recently begun to be considered in construction. Depending how the energy was generated, it takes at least 2 tonnes of CO2 to make a tonne of steel and 4 tonnes to make a tonne of concrete.
90,000 tonnes of CO2 to manufacture the steel?
According to Greenpeace, the Beijing team has eliminated up to 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 through energy saving projects, but this figure is likely to be dwarfed by the energy used to create the facilities and infrastructure, which could be the equivalent of the annual emissions of an airline. London 2012 will have lighter, smarter buildings that minimise their impact on the environment in construction and in use.
As China emerges as a world superpower I hope the nation can learn from the example of the London Games to address all the causes of greenhouse gas emissions.
This post also appears at www.building.co.uk
21 August 2008
Bottoms up!
When I travelled all the way to China to learn about sustainability at an Olympic Games I did not expect to be writing about bottoms.
There is a good environmental story to be told here, the Olympic Park and athletes’ village are zero emission zones with extensive use of electric and hydrogen powered vehicles. There are solar panels everywhere for both electricity and heating and the team here have created an 80 hectare conservation area to the north of the park which will be enjoyed by the public for generations to come.
However, the most innovative approach is to be found in the “Water Cube” aquatic centre. It is made from an innovative plastic construction which gives it a unique appearance as well as optimum energy conservation but the real innovation is in the seats. There is a system to transmit body heat from the seats to help heat the pool, taking heat from the backsides of spectators to warm up the athletes. Paradoxically, in the top VIP seats in the Bird’s Nest stadium there is a little individual air conditioning unit under each seat.
There is an interesting social paradigm in extracting heat from the masses in order to save enough energy to blow cold air up the backsides of the privileged few. I don’t think Chairman Mao would have approved!
20 August 2008
Food glorious food…?
Healthy, quality and sustainable food is a big issue for London and the UK generally. The London Food Commission is active in this area and the ironically entitled Curry Report on Food from Sir Don Curry set out the national perspective. On the ground, organisations like the London Food Link and the Coriander Club are doing some great work. It is interesting to know what we can learn from Beijing.
Beijing is a huge, cosmopolitan metropolis which 17 million people call “home”. The place has become an orgy of consumerism and food is no exception. You can get everything here from the ubiquitous Starbucks, McDonalds and Pizza Hut to top class restaurants serving Chinese regional dishes, western and other eastern cuisine. You can find street vendors selling little wooden kebabs with tasty treats from chicken to deep fried cockroach (I stuck to the chicken), there are restaurants selling stir fried bullfrog and snake skin but it seems the authorities have banned the sale of dog during the games for fear of offending western sensitivities (but cockroach is still OK). I even found an oriental kebab stall. The stallholders seem to be obliged to wear face masks, presumably to prevent them from breathing germs on the cockroaches. I have just returned from lunch in a small place across the road from the hotel, there was no English spoken at all so we had to point to pictures of food on the wall, I ended up with a plate of chilli flavoured cold tripe with rice and a bottle of beer, the bill was less than £5 for two. The tripe was OK actually.
The experience at the Olympic Park could not be more different. Every catering offer is the same, it is a small, PVC clad (more about PVC later!) tent with a Coca-Cola branded menu board offering exactly the same range of delicacies. The box meal looks like a Pot Noodle, egg is a single boiled egg, sausage is a single sausage in a plastic bag and nobody dares to find out what is in the pie. Yesterday, my colleagues and I decided to forgo these pleasures and went for the only other sustenance on the park, a Big Mac, eaten alfresco, standing (there is nowhere to sit) in a monsoon downpour. I had no idea how to get the straw out of the plastic dispenser in McDonalds and a charming little Chinese boy of about 6 showed me how to do it with a huge grin across his face. At least I made somebody’s day!
London must do better than this, actually it cannot be much worse so we must do much better. I would like to see the 2012 catering offer reflect the current diversity and history of London. Over 300 languages are spoken in London and the Borough of Newham is one of the most diverse on the planet, we can celebrate this diversity through food. We can also celebrate London’s history, the Lee Valley used to be the market garden of London and we should revive this tradition, if we are going to create green space why not grow things we can eat? The Lee Valley Park is an ideal source of local food.
LOCOG are developing their food strategy later this year and I look forward to something more appetising than box meal, pie, sausage and egg.
This post also appears at www.bbc.co.uk/london
19 August 2008
The Green Olympics?
We have all heard the negative stories. Displacing thousands of people to build the Olympic Park in Beijing, the smog, the algae, the choking traffic and the alarming increase in demand for energy. However, there is a positive sustainability story to be told here and many lessons we can learn for London 2012.
On the social side, the city has recruited 1.5 million volunteers to help with the games, from the blue shirted people who assist at the venues and other key locations, including transport locations, to the social volunteers who have been trained simply to help people when they can. When I was standing in the Wanfujing district wondering how on earth I will cross an eight lane highway, a young man came over to direct me to the subway. The happy band of blue uniformed volunteers are mostly young, well educated, lively, optimistic and helpful. They are not always very well informed but they make you feel better about being lost and there are so many of them you will get the right answer eventually. What a wonderful social opportunity this is, to take part in a massive global event, to mix with people from all cultures and to learn a lot about their own city.
Volunteers ready to assist
Thanks to my friends at LOCOG, I was offered the rare privilege of visiting the hallowed ground of the athletes’ village. This is a housing complex four times the size of the one that will be in London. All of the flats have already been sold for between $300,000 and $500,000 - no credit crunch here! The village is a haven of peace and tranquillity with trees and running water everywhere. This may not be the case in legacy; the four lane highway that runs through the middle of the village currently only sees the occasional hydrogen powered bus but will soon be choked with traffic. The broad paths that support a trend for athletes to whizz round on little electric “go-peds” have already been marked out for parking spaces.
I sat at the next table to Michael Phelps in the huge dining area and marvelled at the collection of youth and talent assembled here. Remembering my day job, I sneaked round the back to see the massive air conditioning units that have been deployed to keep the world’s elite athletes from over-heating while they are eating. This is only half the story. There are solar photovoltaic panels every 10 meters in the village, with further solar and wind powered resources on the roofs of buildings. Water from the roof of the iconic Bird’s Nest stadium is collected and used for irrigation. The authorities here claim to have abated 1.2 million to 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 through energy conservation, renewable energy from solar and wind, and 500 vehicles powered by electricity or hydrogen that contribute to the zero emissions area in the Olympic Park and Athletes’ Village.
The lessons from Beijing will be valuable for London 2012, this friendly, hospitable and safe place can teach us a lot.
This post also appears at http://www.greenbang.com/
18th August 2008
Getting around Beijing
In preparation for the Olympics, the Beijing authorities have implemented a range of measures to ensure a smooth transport experience for the anticipated half a million visitors to the Olympics held in a city which is already home to 17 million people. Three subway lines and some 3,800 compressed natural gas buses have been added. Alternate driving days have been implemented based on the last digit of vehicles' license plates since July 20, while older vehicles with higher levels of emissions have been banned from the city during the Games.
In addition, 70 per cent of all government cars have been taken off the road for the duration. All this, with the goal to reduce the 3.3 million vehicles in Beijing by half during the Games. This is noticeable - most of the vehicles on the street are busses and taxis.
I travelled part of the way to the park by metro on Wednesday with Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, (who says ministers are chauffeured everywhere?). It is efficient, easy to navigate and mercifully air conditioned, (Beijing has also installed 200MW of wind energy in recent years) and your mobile phone works underground.
Volunteers ready to help on the metro
However, the journey from the centre of Beijing needs four changes and can take about an hour. There is only one rail option and it requires a lot of walking and stairs, disabled access is not good. Busses in Beijing are complicated and slow, despite efforts to reduce traffic.
Travelling by taxi is cheap but haphazard. There is no taxi rank near the park. I tried to flag down a cab on a six lane highway outside the park in monsoon rain conditions on Thursday in a desperate attempt to get to the rowing venue. Not much fun.
There is an urban myth that taxi drivers have been ordered to learn some phrases of English. This is nonsense. If you don't have a book of "cheat cards" with clear instructions in Mandarin describing exactly where you want to go you have no chance. Even if you do, some taxi drivers are semi-literate and their knowledge of the city geography can be as hazy as the atmosphere. A taxi driver yesterday stopped to summon two young women to help to translate for us. This sums up the attitude here, everybody smiles and wants to help.
London has pledged to be the "public transport games" and I am confident that we can do better than Beijing in this area. Stratford will be served by the Central and Jubilee lines, the Docklands Light Railway, Eurostar and the exciting Olympic Javelin link to Kings Cross. There will be numerous bus options and whilst London cabbies may not be fluent in Mandarin or Cantonese, they know their way round their city.
The next twelve months will be critical in turning the pledge in to a detailed execution plan and deliver tangible results.
This post also appears at www.bbc.co.uk/london
16 August 2008
Does the world really need another plastic Big Ben?
One of the most emotive developments in the London 2012 planning so far was the unveiling of the logo for the games. Debate raged about whether it was a vibrant expression of London’s energy – or the work of a crazed graffiti artist. I was wearing my London 2012 jacket when waiting in the pouring rain for transport from the rowing venue yesterday. It was thankfully fully waterproof but it also sparked a conversation with a British ex-patriot family in front of me, they still hate it! This reaction demonstrates the emotion the people of the host cities can start to feel about the logos, mascots and merchandising related to the games.
This is no where more true than in Beijing as it seems the entire city is awash with the two elements of the olympics branding. The first of these is the “Fuwa” a troupe of five cartoon characters or good luck dolls. The other and most widespread symbol of the games is the olympics logo “Dancing Beijing”, based on ancient Chinese characters. The Beijing logos and merchandising appear to have literally become the focus for outpourings of national pride and anticipation. There is a huge “Olympic Flagship Store” close to the Forbidden City. It is like a department store inside with room after room of souvenirs, mostly cheap trinkets but also quality merchandise. The rooms with cheap stuff are packed with Chinese people visiting Beijing who patiently stand in queues of 50+ people to pay for their prized merchandise. There is a similar store in the Olympic park. If you venture further afield you can find street markets with copy merchandise, these seem to be mostly used by Chinese people, I had a lot of attention from stallholders as the only westerner in sight.
Local merchandise Retail therapy?
A lot of the day-to-day work of the commission is addressing large scale sustainability challenges like carbon, transport and air quality. However one of my most personally held hopes is that the London games gives us an opportunity to stimulate a completely new approach to merchandising. I think it’s true to say that many of us worry now about how much “stuff” we have and how to moderate mass consumption. Addressing this issue through the Olympics would be the chance to raise this at a personal level with millions of people - literally giving them a piece of sustainability best practice to hold in their hands.
The sustainability issues relating to merchandising are wide-ranging and complex. They cover everything from ensuring that the production of goods is done ethically, to the materials that are used and the energy that is consumed to make them. Perhaps most importantly it relates to the concept of what sort of products should be made. Does the world really need any more plastic Big Bens made in the same factory as the plastic Eiffel Towers and Leaning Tower of Pisas? What sort of “things” will help us mark the incredible occasion of the London games – will they be inspiring, useful, durable or beautiful? Or all of these? Will they reflect the intrinsic nature of London?
This post also appears at www.bbc.co.uk/london
15 August 2008
The smog blog
The experience of Beijing compared to London is one of similarities and contrasts. The sheer scale of growth in Beijing is incredible and the city is expanding in all directions in a grid system surrounded by a series of massive concentric ring roads whereas London is really a collection of small communities that have grown together over centuries. However they do share an environmental challenge with air quality.
While the Beijing smog has captured the headlines and made for some dramatic photo opportunities, London is not as immune to the ills of air pollution as we might like to think. Although the UK’s air quality problems are less visible to the naked eye, or indeed the camera, they are still very much an issue. Once the Beijing Games are over, and all eyes turn towards London, we will have to prove that our clear skies are not harbouring an invisible threat.
London is widely recognised as one of the most polluted cities in Europe for tiny particulates. These exacerbate conditions such as asthma and lung disease, with poor air quality resulting in between 12,000 and 24,000 premature deaths each year in the UK. As well as this human cost, there is also the financial cost to consider of treating these preventable illnesses.
To help combat this problem, and ensure the best possible air quality for athletes while earning green credentials in the process, the ODA has announced its aspiration to encourage 100% of spectators to travel to the Games by public transport, by bicycle or by foot. London can also expect the exciting new Javelin rail service, which will speed spectators from central London to the Olympic Park in seven minutes. Construction materials will also, as much as possible, be transported by rail and water.
But this is not a lasting solution to improving London’s air quality standards. Because road vehicles are largely responsible this pollution, London has already put in place the UK’s first Low Emissions Zone. I really hope this goes at least some way to ensuring that the cleaner air quality we hope to achieve for the Olympic Games is sustained, and that after the tourists leave London maintains the legacy of cleaner air.
In Beijing, rare days when the smog has lifted and air quality improves are known as ‘blue sky’ days. British summers being what they are, cloudless skies aren’t guaranteed for the 2012 Games, but I do believe the outlook is bright for cleaner air quality in four years time.
This post also appears at
www.bbc.co.uk/london12 August 2008
Last Impressions
It seems ironic that my first experience of an Olympic Games starts with my first experience of Heathrow Terminal 5. I worked for BAA for 11 years, joining in 1995, the week the T5 enquiry started. This turned out to be the longest public enquiry in English legal history, nearly 7 years, eclipsing the enquiry for Sizewell B nuclear power station. I was involved in various elements of T5 up until I decided to leave in 2006 to pursue a more independent career but up to now I have never experienced T5 as a customer. The environmental achievements of T5, using 70% non-potable water, use of waste CHP heat from an existing facility, high standards for construction and schemes for local employment were best practice at the time. We expect these to be matched or surpassed by the ODA and there are encouraging signs that this will be achieved.
However, T5 was not all success, the building is nowhere near as energy efficient as it could be and early ambitions to eliminate materials such as non-sustainable timber, HFC and PVC were not wholly successful. An independent environmental advisory group (EAG) was set up to challenge and recommend targets for T5. This was a success in setting standards for best practice but it had no teeth and was disbanded during the design phase. This has inspired my work with the Commission www.cslondon.org . I wanted a long term, highly informed and committed body to hold the various organisations delivering the Olympics to account for their sustainability performance. We continuously monitor and review hundreds of objectives targets and recommendations. We do not let anybody off the hook. In doing this I want to deliver much more than a sustainable event and facilities, I want the Olympics to change behaviour in a number of industry sectors in the longer term.
This is starting to happen in construction where concrete will be delivered with half the embodied CO2 emissions of T5, demand for diggers and tipper trucks with Euro Cat 6 engines is at an all time high (from a very low start) due to the stringent air quality standards set by the ODA. Other enlightened construction clients are starting to follow this example and the smarter suppliers are gearing up to differentiate themselves around their sustainability. Less enlightened clients are not. In the longer term, these are likely to end up dealing with less smart suppliers. I would like to see similar changes in the event management, hospitality and merchandising industries.
In building T5, BAA did not have to address the issues surrounding one of the most deprived areas of Europe. Communities are not built of concrete, glass and steel, they are built of people, with emotions, hopes, fears, ambitions, families and friends. The legacy plan needs to reflect this and create the conditions in which a community can thrive. This is the biggest challenge of all and one we will face long after the closing ceremony in 2012.
This post also appears at www.building.co.uk