view
point
dan epstein
The big wins
London 2012 aims to be the first sustainable
olympic games. Head of sustainable
development and regeneration at the Olympic
delivery authority dan epstein explains how.
When I started out in this field, I was swimming venues. You need to take
against the tide. today, sustainability is on everyone’s high level ambitions,
agenda. the challenge is finding the best solution, or understand what they
combination of solutions. mean strategically across
My first job after university was in the Himalayas, the programme, and
48 where i spent five years as a bioengineer experiencing translate that down to
sustainability in its truest sense. i was helping to repair individual projects.
large landslides along major road corridors into the While hundreds of
90%
mountains. this included designing and installing gabion issues fall under the
retaining walls, associated drainage works, and growing sustainability agenda, of demolItIon
and planting trees, grasses and shrubs. the road had the Oda strategy
materIals In the
collapsed twice before it was decided to experiment with focuses on the areas
new forms of engineering, largely because the impact of where we can get the
olympIc park
the monsoon had been underestimated and some of the biggest wins. We’ve broken
project have
engineering solutions were inappropriate in this terrain. this down into 12 key
been reclaImed
i approached it differently, using local skills, materials agendas, six environmental (of
and contracting processes. We worked with local which i’m responsible) and six for recyclIng
community groups to provide them with the necessary social and economic. We’re
or reuse
skills to manage the planted slopes they helped to create. confident that achieving these targets
the emphasis was on appropriate technology, use of local will deliver the most sustainable games
resources, and consideration of local economic and social ever. sustainability – environmental, social
issues. the principles at the heart of the London 2012 and economic – touches on everything we
project or any other major project are not so different. do, from procurement and the nature of
the Olympic delivery authority’s (Oda) sustainable contracts to our attitude to work. atkins has
development strategy aims to ensure that issues of had a big role in helping us think through all
environmental impact, local economic development of the issues involved.
and social renewal are considered at every step of the
Olympic park project. What Is the envIronmental focus?
You have to manage something as large and complex One key area is achieving a reduction in our
as the Olympic development at a programme level, but carbon footprint. We’re working with the London
tailor-make solutions to match specific projects – from Organising Committee of the Olympic and paralympic
the creation of temporary logistics facilities to major Games and the London development agency to reduce
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