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Commercial build: Sustainable Olympics!

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    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeApr 22nd 2011
     
    Do we have a new greatly downgraded meaning for the word sustainable?

    "The organisers say they are on track to deliver the world's first "truly sustainable" Olympic Games!!"

    I cant see that --- the first games might have been but now --- no way.
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeApr 22nd 2011
     
    "Sustainable" in what way?
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeApr 22nd 2011
     
    Probably ticks the boxes for economic and social sustainability. And if I wanted it to I could make it environmentally sustainable. That would involve some accountancy tricks though and all depends on how you valued, in environmental terms, what was there first.

    I have stopped using the term 'sustainable' and just convert it all to kWh and Power. Seems that a common base is easier to deal with. Easy enough to calculate/estimate the amount of energy a person will use over a lifetime and how much energy a set amount of money can buy. All the rest is just technology change and accountancy.
    • CommentAuthorCWatters
    • CommentTimeApr 22nd 2011
     
    Heathrow is closing for the month and everyone is coming by boat?
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeApr 22nd 2011
     
    Be a good time to sell your house in Hounslow then :wink:
  6.  
    Hi,

    Here’s another sustainable one for you all, I noted with interest that a pump manufacturer exhibiting at the Sustainability Live showcase it was the IWEX part (water & effluent) are offering under their Ferrari theme prize tickets to the British F1.
    That’s encouraging
    Cheers
    Mike up North
    • CommentAuthorTimber
    • CommentTimeMay 17th 2011
     
    ^ Mmm, I love the smell of converted petrol-chemical products in the morning...

    Burning rubber and exhaust fumes. I wish I could get that as a 'scent for man'

    Joking aside, what is the re-use rate of the accomodation and stadiums?

    If all athlete accomodation is to be used for social housing after the games, that is sort of sustainable (in a mangled kind of way). Although I suspect it will end up being mangled around and an overall story of failure.
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMay 17th 2011 edited
     
    Can I have them but asked for them to be changed to the Canadian GP as that is about the most energy hungry country there is (and missed the Australian anyway) :wink:

    Did see an a classic car hire company claiming sustainable credentials on the grounds that if you hire one of their E-Types you do not need to buy a new car.
  9.  
    Plus, (as a slighty overweight lazy person) I have always held athletes to be one of the least sustainable life forms.
    Totally non productive plus very very consumer driven/ orientated, guzzling ioswhatsit stuff instead of water, needlessly changing kit etc etc.
    What could be less sustainable?
    did I mention
    Bah Humbug!
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMay 17th 2011
     
    Actually, the classic car argument for their "sustainable credentials" holds some water. A lot of years ago I worked for a classic Jag restoration company in the metal-working department, making and restoring the parts that could no longer be sourced off the shelf. Everything was done by hand. Panels and bumpers/fenders salvaged from scrap heaps; radiators completely rebuilt; previously cast parts fabricated. The Mk2 Jag driven by 'Morse' was one of theirs, and Edsel Ford bought his wife a red (brighter than Morse's) left-hand-drive Mk2 for her birthday. Apart from the rolling-road, the only machines were hand-operated.

    Mind you, the extensively modified souped-up engines of the E-types took them around a German test-track faster than a Ferrari, so I guess they failed the eco-test there. But on the matter of "sustainability" they truly were object lessons in recycling. :bigsmile::smoking:
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMay 17th 2011
     
    It is that 'embodied energy' versus 'running energy' debate again.

    There is a myth that people that do manual work do not use any more energy than my lodger (slovenly and idle), they do, a lot more.

    If we can decide on all energy being supplied by the sun (i know there is a bit of nuclear and gravity) then by calculating the number of m^2 a person needs to be sustained (how many calories can you grow to live) then you have a benchmark to work from. Think we covered this somewhere else.
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMay 17th 2011
     
    Then you're down to comparisons and the other argument starts about what's a pear and what's an orange.

    Reductionism, the enemy of the lumpen proletariat.
  13.  
    Hi,

    Actually I found quite a lot of info about the games on New Civil Engineer (NCE) website - July 2010 article - Brown to Green. You have to register to down load the article, more about the ground etc etc than the buildings/infra structure as such but an interesting read anyway.

    cheers

    Miike up North
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMay 18th 2011 edited
     
    I have been down to Landsend this morning to see the start of the Torch Relay. Now there was no torch, team of runners or anything interesting by the time I got there. There were a few TV vans and lots of people milling about in the fog (see video and picture). Now I wonder what the environmental costs of moving all these bods and kit around the country is for what could have been done in a studio with a pasty white background.
    As an aside if anyone is interested it now costs £4 to park there and a small pot of tea (and I mean small) is £2.20. I pretended I was part of the 'crew' and bluffed my way in and just helped myself to the tea that was laid out on a table for all the important people, I held back from stealing a bacon roll though.
    What really made me giggle was the two photo journalists trying to get their mobile broadband to work anywhere :bigsmile:

    Link to a small video of the fog, you may hear the horn going off:
    http://www.4shared.com/video/ZUn4NdaX/Olympic_Torch.html
      Olympic Torch.jpg
    • CommentAuthorseascape
    • CommentTimeMay 18th 2011
     
    Is that sign a tea tray?
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMay 18th 2011
     
    No, I asked about it and it was specially crafted out of the most expensive materials by 'world craftsmen' cost a fortune.
    Actually I said nothing to them, just wondered why they needed a second sign there. The usual one has been there since I was a kid. The sky was the same as when I first went there too.
      Landsend Sign.jpg
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMay 18th 2011
     
    Good old Cornish weather. Rarely lets you down! :cry:

    Despite a family with roots deep in the county, I'd never been there until No2 son moved to St. Austell. Asked him what it was like.

    "Wet."
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMay 18th 2011
     
    Posted By: Joiner"Wet."


    Be fair. Wet most days:cool:
  19.  
    did you check out the waves at Sennen while you were down there?
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMay 18th 2011 edited
     
    Not today, was calm on the south coast though. Any Reason why?

    The Matt cartoon today was about the Olympics:
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/
  21.  
    no reason. i find it hard to pass any beach without a quick wave check , fortunately ( or unfortunately ) i live no where near the sea.
  22.  
    Hi,
    Just tried to up load some docs wot I downloaded and it wont for 2 reasons 1) too big 2) not allowed but they do email and open ok so any suggestions other than email to who ever wants a read. I found some more on another site. Seems to be quite a lot on the area. Also of interest is the combined heat / power cooling / centre, ie 2 x gas turbs (size?) and a 3MW th bio mass etc not saying thats sustainable exactly but interesting to techy types.

    e mail in profile if no other suggestions

    Cheers
    Mike up North
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMay 19th 2011
     
    Mike
    Try the 4Shared site
    http://www.4shared.com/

    Create an account, download the little software application, drag what you want into the appropriate folder, let it upload and then get a link to it. It can upload on a regular basis or every time you make a change to the folder.
    Works for me.
    Don't put up anything that you don't want to share with the world though, even if you keep it private.
  24.  
    Interesting that Olympics sustainability claim includes biomass, dictionary details sustainable means capable of being maintained at a steady level without exhausting natural resources or causing ecological damage. Reality is current biomass projects will require import of 50 million tonnes of biomass /yr preferred material stated to be woodchip from Brazil, transport fuelled by high sulphur content oil, woodchip 19% air so 1 in 5 trips wasted.
    New report details 4.5 million ha needs to be diverted from food production to biofuel feedstock in EU. News report today details UK decision to divert 1 million ha from food to biomass and centres on demise of brown hare due to change in habitat. We are aware biomass such as willow requires minimum summer rainfall 600mm, current rainfall in Eastern Counties display need for massive constant irrigation.
    I see special public service awards are being given to hospitals investing massive funds into conversion to woodchip boilers despite knowledge this increases hazardous PM pollution 80 times higher than gas alternative. The press are also giving recycling awards to companies using waste wood to provide energy although operating efficiency is sub 16%, hazardous pollution 260 times higher than gas and they admit they are diverting wood from far superior truly recycling streams such as panel manufacture.
    Sadly we do appear to live in la la land.
  25.  
    Hi,
    Done the 4share thingy (hopefully) i think it needs a few hours before it works. I think I then need to tell you what to look for file wise.
    I think thern you can down load then to read, all offered without comment good or bad, just offered for discussional (made up word!) purposes. The bio mass seems to have caught some interest.

    Cheers
    Mike up north
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMay 19th 2011 edited
     
    Mike
    If you open up the little 4Share application that hides down the bottom right, near the clock, Right click on the file you then get the 'Get Link'.
    Copy and past that into here and all done.
  27.  
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMay 20th 2011 edited
     
    Or

    Brown_to_Green
    http://www.4shared.com/document/hFpDnbOk

    olymp_envir_management.html
    http://www.4shared.com/document/R0FQov7k

    olymp_sustain_management.html
    http://www.4shared.com/document/pCjnLdKW

    Think they work now, you have to go to the blue ' Download Now' link and then an annoying 20second wait.
    • CommentAuthorJoiner
    • CommentTimeMay 20th 2011
     
    Care to shift this file sharing advice to the 'Useful resource' thread for ease of future reference?

    http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/forum114/comments.php?DiscussionID=7309
    • CommentAuthorCWatters
    • CommentTimeMay 25th 2011
     
    Will they use electric cars to escort the torch?

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