The Greening of the Games

The clock is ticking for the London 2012 Olympic Games. And as London celebrated the three-years-and-counting-mark, the pressure is on for organizers to live up to their nickname: Sustainable Games --  a quick attempt to show off their efforts to go green.

According to the official London 2012 plans, they’re promising that 20 percent of all building materials will have recycled content, timber will be sustainable and 50 percent of the construction materials will be transported to the site by either train or water. To encourage biodiversity, they’ll build over 525 bird boxes and 150 bat boxes within all structures. Habitats for otters, amphibians and other rare wildlife are also being created amid the Olympic structures. (In 2007 fish, toads and newts were moved to a nature reserve outside Olympic Park to protect them against the construction activity.)

A sampling of what's to come:

--The 17,500-seat Aquatics Centre is being built of concrete that’s 39 percent recycled material. The water used to clean the swimming pool filters will be recycled for toilet flushing. And the centre will be capped with a 100 percent recycled aluminum roof.

--Two-thirds of the materials for the temporary 12,000-seat basketball arena will be reused or recycled.

--The official Olympic Stadium itself – home of the opening and closing ceremonies – will use recycled materials, including unwanted gas pipelines for the roof. It’s the lightest Olympic Stadium to date, and materials being used to the site are being delivered by water.

--The Media Centre, the 24-hour hub for about 20,000 journalists, will include a “brown roof” of gravel and moss (it’s being called a “living roof”), bird and bat boxes, and a combined heating and cooling plant.

--At the Handball Arena, rainwater will be harvested to provide drinking water.

The race is on to see if these games make it to the podium stand for a green medal...