Rapid Download Squad

The Games are a sporting and cultural event on a unique scale, but they are a lot more than that. They are an opportunity to show off the best that the host nation can offer. They give organisers the chance to demonstrate excellence in the way that the Games are planned and staged, and in the legacy of benefits that they create, both directly and through inspiring changes in behaviour among people across the world.

London put sustainability at the heart of its bid for the 2012 Games, framed by the concept of ‘Towards a One Planet Olympics’. This was derived from the WWF/BioRegional concept of ‘One Planet Living®’1, which encapsulates the challenges facing us in stark and compelling terms: if everybody in the world lived the same lifestyle as we do in the UK, we would need three planets’ worth of resources to support us. As the most high-profile event in the world, the Games give us the chance to show how changes to the way we build, live, work, do business and travel could help us to live happy and healthy lives, within the resources available to us.