Let’s start with a surprising fact − the 2014 Commonwealth Games will mostly take place in venues that already exist. In fact, around 70% of the venues are here right now – like Hampden Park and the Scottish Exhibition Centre complex.
Indeed, rather than go to the likely huge expense of building a new stadium, we adopted to temporarily turn Hampden Park from a football stadium into an elite athletics stadium to host track and field and the Games’ Closing Ceremony. That’s big news. Even using the latest techniques, it’s hard to build from scratch and meet the highest standards of environmental responsibility.
By reusing what we’ve got, the Games is already off to a flying start.
It’s about the day-to-day decisions too. That’s why we’re working with the events industry, government and local people – so that we make the right decisions.
How we intend to deal with waste from the Games is just one example. By setting high standards, and looking to minimise the waste we produce, we’re helping pioneer new ways of working.
And where we can, we’re measuring the environmental impact of a huge range of our work through implementing the recommendations set out in the Games’ Strategic Environmental Assessment.
Read our Procurement Sustainability Policy.