Design will be ‘key’ to a sustainable Olympics

The use of design will be ‘absolutely key’ to the sustainability efforts of the 2012 Olympic Games.

So says the chairman of the newly established Commission for a Sustainable London 2012, Shaun McCarthy, in an exclusive interview with Design Week.

Launched last week, the commission will independently monitor London 2012’s pledge to host the most sustainable games yet, tackling issues including building design, procurement and delivery processes. It will begin advertising for commission members next month.

‘I would love to engage the design industry and to have senior designers on the commission. Design is very high on my list of priorities,’ says McCarthy.

The commission is looking for people to give voluntary help, as well as a small number of office holders who will work directly with McCarthy. Once the commissioners are appointed, McCarthy plans to set out a list of priorities to determine which areas can be addressed.

‘We want to have a wide group of experts with specialist skills we can draw on. If we were doing a design review, we should have someone with design expertise to assess the programmes,’ adds McCarthy.

The Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 will be responsible for monitoring the delivery, staging and legacy of the games and will report directly to the Olympic Board. The body emerged from work conducted by the Mayor’s London Sustainable Development Commission in 2003 and is jointly funded by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, the Olympic Delivery Authority, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.