The 2012 Games will transform the Lower Lea Valley and provide a lasting, sustainable legacy across the UK.

As well as the physical legacy that the Games will leave behind, we aim to use the Games to educate and inspire people about sustainability.

Climate change

As far as possible, we will ensure that everything that is being constructed can be used and improved on in the future. For example, we are planning so that the communities that remain in and around the Olympic Park after the Games will be able to access local renewable energy sources as new, low/zero carbon fuels become available.

After the Games, at least 20 per cent of energy requirements will be supplied by on-site renewable energy sources.

The close proximity of the Park to transport connections and the creation of new footpaths and cycle routes will help reduce car dependency among the local community.

Waste

Through the education campaigns we run before and during the Games, we will encourage people to reduce, reuse or recycle waste. We hope that the 2012 programme will aim to help change people’s habits for good – and inspire other major events in the future to be more sustainable.

The Games will act as a catalyst for the development of new waste processing facilities in east London which will provide a lasting facility.

Biodiversity

The Olympic Park Masterplan provides for 102 hectares of open space. The Park will be the largest new urban green space in Europe and the area will benefit from:

• enhanced water and land habitats;
• open water and wetlands; and
• species-rich grasslands.

The types of plant used will be native to south-east England (and ideally of locally-grown stock), which are suited to predicted future climates. This will help the whole site be better adapted to climate change, through its ability to cope with heavy rainfall events as well as providing greenery to provide shade.

Healthy living

The legacy of a new parkland designed to promote walking, cycling and provide sporting facilities for the elite athletes and the community has excellent health benefits for the area. In addition, permanent buildings will be converted into service buildings that will support the community. These include:

• the Aquatics Centre will be available for use by local residents; and
• the Polyclinic (which will offer medical services to athletes during the Games) will be transformed by Newham Primary Care Trust into a new primary care centre for local people.

Sport programmes will continue to be developed as a result of the London 2012 Games across London and the UK.

Inclusion

To make London 2012 ‘everyone’s Games’, the UK Government and the Mayor of London have prepared delivery plans to ensure that benefits and participation can be spread as widely as possible. The Government published Our Promise for 2012 in June 2007, and is planning to publish a detailed legacy action plan in 2008. The Mayor published Your 2012, summarising its delivery plans, in July 2007.)

London 2012 is committed to working closely with local authorities and communities, in order to maximise the benefits that the Park can deliver after the Games, in terms of:

• re-integrating communities on either side of the Lower Lea Valley;
• creating housing (including affordable housing) and jobs for local people;
• creating parkland and legacy venues that will benefit local communities, as well as supporting elite sports; and
• enabling social cohesion, and social, economic and environmental regeneration in one of the most underdeveloped parts of the UK.