There hardly seems to be a day that goes by when you don’t stumble across the phrase ‘carbon footprint’ in the press or media. London 2012 is very aware of this heightened public interest in climate change issues and we are committed to delivering ‘low carbon’ Games.

One of our first challenges, however, is to define what we mean by our carbon footprint. In June we appointed two specialist consultants to help us with this task.

Last Monday marked a significant point in the project as their initial recommendations were presented to a special workshop at our offices with invited experts from Government, the GLA, the London Development Agency, Transport for London, the British Standards Institute, several environmental organisations, and the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, as well as the in-house sustainability team and several interested colleagues within London 2012.

We had a lively and constructive discussion on how to set the boundaries of our carbon footprint. Potentially there are a wide range of activities with some link to the Games which can generate carbon emissions.

But many of these are way beyond our control or influence. Where we can be more precise is in measuring the carbon emissions of activities which we pay for or commission, such as building venues, providing local transport, Games merchandising, and catering, etc.

In all these examples, we can specify products, materials and / or services with lower carbon impacts and thus reduce our carbon footprint overall. In effect, this is another form of accounting; just with carbon rather than money as the currency.

The hardest part in setting our carbon footprint boundaries is in areas where we have some degree of influence but no financial control, such as how people travel to the Games, or cultural projects inspired by the Games.

Another issue is how we account for legacy impacts – indeed over time it is quite likely we will have a net positive situation as the long-term benefits of new low carbon infrastructure and behavioural changes kick in.

While there are many complexities, uncertainties and emerging methods, it is also really exciting as we are breaking new ground – no previous Games or other major event has undertaken such a complete analysis of its carbon footprint. Indeed one of our key stakeholders who attended the workshop described what we were doing as “trailblazing”.

It is nice to think that we will not only minimise our environmental impacts but provide some thought leadership as part of the knowledge legacy of the Games.