Livingstone promises green Olympics

The Guardian reports, The London mayor, Ken Livingstone, today promised that the 2012 London Olympics will be the most environmentally friendly games ever staged.

Launching a new set of draft rules to guide the construction of the Olympic facilities, Mr Livingstone made a series of ambitious pledges on how the event would regenerate east London. He said the procurement principles for contractors to follow would do more than just ensure that the work was completed on time and to budget.

"The London games will be quite simply the most sustainable ever - leaving a lasting legacy of jobs, homes and environmental improvements for east London, London and Britain," he said. The new draft principles insist that the facilities meet the best design standards. Architectural competitions will be used to select the designers of the stadiums and the other main buildings on the Stratford site.

The principles document is aimed at ensuring that the Olympic facilities can be used after the games themselves. It says that the Olympics must avoid creating "white elephant" facilities. The document admits that regeneration of the host city is not an automatic consequence of staging the games. It said: "The history of past games shows very clearly that this lasting legacy doesn't happen merely as a logical and natural extension of the games."

It said that the organisers are keen to combine the environmental record of the Sydney games with the inner city regeneration prompted by the Barcelona games. Under the proposed new rules, bidding contractors have to show their commitment to ethical employment practices and using recycling materials. They are also reminded that the whole process will be subject to the new freedom of information rules. The procurement rules also suggested that local people should be given a preference for jobs generated by the games. A

training programme will be developed in the area, to give local people a better chance of getting the jobs on offer. Mr Livingstone added: "One of the key priorities over the next seven years will be to ensure local people and businesses benefit to the greatest possible extent." The mayor also announced the start of £70m project to bury overhead power lines on the site of the Olympic village.