The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) today took another significant step in its ambition to ensure the Games are staged in a truly sustainable way by publishing the first online edition of its Sustainable Sourcing Code.
Predominantly aimed at internal buyers, suppliers (both current and prospective) and licensees, the code will enable the organisation to make informed decisions with regards to environmental, social and ethical issues, when procuring the products and services needed for the Games and meet the ambitions laid out in the wider London 2012 Sustainability Plan, launched last year.
Download the Sustainable Sourcing Code.The code will require LOCOG and its suppliers to identify, source and use environmentally sound and socially responsible practices based around four basic principles:
- Responsible Sourcing – ensuring goods and services are sourced and produced under a set of internationally acceptable environmental, social and ethical guidelines and standards;
- Use of Secondary Materials – maximising the use of materials with recycled content, minimising packaging and designing products that can either be reused or recycled;
- Minimising Embodied Impacts – maximising resource and energy efficiency in the manufacturing and supply process in order to minimise environmental impacts;
- Healthy Materials – ensuring non-polluting / non-toxic materials and substances are used.
Put simply, LOCOG’s approach to sourcing sustainable products can be based on the following five key questions:
1. Where does it come from?
2. Who made it?
3. What is it made of?
4. What is it wrapped in?
5. What will happen to it after the Games?
When sourcing services which involve labour, the code refers to the Ethical Trading Initiative’s (ETI) Base Code as a guide to the required standard that suppliers should be working towards.
With procurement building over the next few years, it is anticipated that LOCOG alone will generate around 5000 direct business opportunities, creating approximately 25,000 supply chain opportunities. The peak of this activity will occur between 2010 and 2012 necessitating thousands of individual purchases from a wide range of suppliers and licensees in a relatively short period of time. With this in mind, certain key areas will be prioritised initially for the full application of the code.
London 2012 CEO, Paul Deighton commented: 'London 2012 represents a fantastic opportunity to deliver a world class sporting event, but in a sustainable way. Our ambition is to set new sustainability benchmarks for the way large-scale events are staged, the Sustainable Sourcing Code is a key part of this. One of the most important aspects of this for me is that we are able to develop this as we progress – this is just the first edition. As we move forward, learn more and gather feedback from others, we can ensure we stay current in this area and indeed across all of our sustainability themes.'
Fairtrade Foundation Executive Director, Harriet Lamb commented: 'The Fairtrade Foundation welcomes LOCOG’s Sustainable Sourcing Code and its provision for Fairtrade products. We are delighted that LOCOG, at this early stage, has made clear its position on the importance of securing products which have been sourced sustainably, including those independently certified to international Fairtrade standards. This sends a clear signal to all companies supplying Fairtrade products that the race is on to get involved with London 2012. How great if one of the legacies were to be that London, which recently became the world’s largest Fairtrade city, could enable many more producers in developing countries to sell their products under Fairtrade terms.'
Waste & Resources Action Programme Director of Market Development, Marcus Gover commented: 'WRAP welcomes LOCOG's commitment to staging a zero waste to landfill Games. The Sustainable Sourcing Code sets out how suppliers will help deliver this by maximising the use of materials with recycled content, minimising packaging and designing products that can be reused or recycled.'
Chief Executive of the Carbon Trust, Tom Delay commented: 'It’s essential that environmental sustainability is at the heart of London 2012, and the Carbon Trust welcomes this latest initiative. Suppliers have a vital role in delivering a low carbon Games: the associated guidelines on carbon emissions of products and services will be an important help in this respect. Those leading companies that are already using the Carbon Trust Standard to demonstrate action on climate change and the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Reduction Label to measure and communicate product carbon footprints will be well placed to help London 2012 reduce the carbon footprint across its supply chain.'
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For further information please contact the London 2012 Press Office on +44 (0)203 2012 100
Notes to editors The London 2012 Sustainability Plan, published in November 2007, outlined London 2012’s commitment to ensuring that the 2012 Games are managed in a way that remains economically viable but is also environmentally sound, socially responsible and ethical. Suppliers and licensees to LOCOG have a key role to play in helping to deliver a sustainable Games; hence, the Sustainable Sourcing Code is needed to outline expectations of prospective suppliers and licensees and describe how they can meet our sustainability requirements.
It is not intended to be prescriptive; it sets a framework to enable LOCOG to consider the relevant issues and make informed choices. It will be used to develop detailed functional and operational specific procurement strategies (e.g. catering, transport, etc) and further requirements may well be introduced together with more explicit performance measures relating to what is being procured (e.g. food or vehicles). This will be articulated at the tender stage.
The Sustainable Sourcing Code has been developed over a period of 18 months following discussions with the International Olympic Committee, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the Olympic Delivery Authority, our Key Stakeholders including the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, leading retailers and brands in the sustainable procurement field, sponsors, industry experts and the third sector, including the Trades Union Congress, Playfair Alliance, the Ethical Trading Initiative, WWF, Fairtrade Foundation and UNICEF. LOCOG has taken the opportunity to learn from the experience of others in this field.
The Sustainable Sourcing Code is already in active use by specifiers and buyers within LOCOG and has been trialled in some significant deals.
This is the first edition of the Sustainable Sourcing Code. As LOCOG’s procurement programme evolves, it will continually review how the Code is performing in practice and will release updated editions of the Code as and when appropriate.
