PEFC Helps Olympic Park Raise Sustainability

A Breakfast Roundtable hosted by PEFC at the Commonwealth Club in central London and attended by some of the country's major contractors, heard Dr Peter Bonfield, Head of Construction Products at the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and Chief Executive at BRE describe how the 2012 London Olympic Park development is destined to be a future model for timber procurement and its legal and sustainable supply.

The ODA has committed to sourcing 100% certified timber through the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) schemes and is working towards dual Project Certification for the whole Olympic Park development—the first dual project certification in the world. This groundbreaking achievement in sustainable timber procurement has played a prominent role in helping the ODA achieve its commitment of making the London 2012 Olympic Games the greenest games ever.


Speaking about the challenges, successes and implications of the Olympic Park development for the future of sustainable timber procurement for the built environment sector, Dr. Bonfield said: "Sustainability has been embedded in everything we do. The delivery team has played a brave and heroic role in making this a Green Games and creating a model for sourcing and supply that can potentially be applied to London as a whole and possibly across the UK."

The partnership role played by both PEFC and FSC will see the levels of legal and sustainable timber procured by the ODA achieve the highest possible target of 100%. The huge challenge has meant that the Games’ East London site comprising of seven major venues across a 246 hectare Olympic Park needed to be managed on a daily basis for the thousands of timber products entering the site. The ambitious and innovative development approach has been driven forward by the establishment of the Timber Supplier Panel that has embedded strict policy and procurement procedures, created controls, implemented a delivery management system and been forthright in policing and educating stakeholders and their supply chains about sustainable timber and unbroken chain of custody.

Alun Watkins who heads up PEFC in the UK commented: "PEFC welcomes ODA's intention to obtain dual certification for such a high profile project and is pleased that both PEFC and FSC have been able to work together to help make this possible. The roundtable event also provided an important opportunity for the certification schemes to meet and discuss timber procurement with some of the UK’s leading construction companies."

(CD/BMcC)