Discovery Channel inspects preparation for London Olympics

Can Britain fulfill its pledge to make the 2012 Olympics the greenest and most sustainable games yet?

July 21, 2011:

When the announcement was made for London to host the 2012 Olympic Games, it was an immense victory for Britain.  It also meant the organisers would face a number of challenges to make London 2012 the greenest and most sustainable games to date.  Discovery Channel's exclusive programme GOING FOR GREEN – BRITAIN'S 2012 DREAM spotlightsBritain's preparations for the world's biggest sporting event – the 2012 Olympics.

GOING FOR GREEN: BRITAIN'S 2012 DREAM premieres on Discovery Channel on Tuesday, July 26 at 8 p.m.

London had swayed the International Olympic Committee's decision in its favour with a radical proposal – to hold the world's first sustainable Olympic Games, leaving a legacy far beyond the departure of the Olympic torch. With an estimated budget of £8 billion, the planning of London 2012's green Olympic dreams involves creation of parklands, world class stadiums - a gigantic construction project that will not damage the environment, but will enhance it.

Commenting on the programme, Rahul Johri, senior vice president and general manager - India, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific said, “After providing viewers with a 360 degree view of the 2008 China Olympics, Discovery Channel will be incorporating unprecedented footage and unparalleled access to provide a glimpse into the extensive transformation of London for the 2012 Olympics, which includes some of the most fascinating creations ever made. Discovery Channel is proud is present the fascinating view of the mega event's preparation.”

Discovery Channel's programme GOING FOR GREEN: BRITAIN'S 2012 DREAM provides a detailed view of the challenges faced by the city of London and the administration in building and maintaining infrastructure to support the mega-sporting event. The programme explores the cutting edge technologies used to tackle various biodiversity problems that arise on the way to accomplishing their objectives. It also reveals a variety of obstacles faced in order to bring alive the UK's biggest and most audacious constructions projects which range from turning semi-derelict wasteland into prime Olympic real estate, removing more than 220 buildings and saving 90% of the materials for later re-use on the site, the clearance of 2 million square meters of land, cutting down more than 50 electricity pylons and burying all the power lines deep underground in two colossal, 6 kilometer-long tunnels.

In the past, the Olympics have left a glut of stadia too big for use after the Olympic crowds have dissipated. The programme follows the architects and engineers who have set a revolutionary brief - they must embrace the temporary and build the first world-class stadium that can be partly disassembled, enabling 55,000 seats to be shipped to the next host city to be reused. GOING FOR GREEN: BRITAIN'S 2012 DREAM explores how landscape planners are tackling biodiversity problems by designing over 100 hectares of specialist habitats and in the process mitigate London's flood risk. The show features experts from various fields whoare collaborating to make the games a huge success and showing the way to a better, greener world.

Hear from the people behind the scenes and share their excitement, sense of responsibility, pride and dreams as they each work towards the common goal of making this the most successful and sustainable Olympic Games ever.

Some of the landmark projects include:

• Over 4,000 new semi-mature trees are taking root in the Olympic Park and Olympic Village, which will be the largest one-off planting of its kind in the capital.
• Covering an area of two and a half square kilometres Olympic Park would be the largest British park to be developed in more than a century.
• New habitats for species including: otter; kingfisher; grey heron; bee; and many more.
• Two million tons of earth to bedecontaminated.
• Five soil-washing machines have successfully completed cleaning most of the one million cubic metres of soil contaminated with oil, petrol, tar, cyanide, arsenic and lead.
• Over 5km of riverbanks replaced or refurbished and 30,000 tonnes of silt, gravel and other materials dredged from the rivers.
  • Includes two 50m swimming pools and a 25m diving tank
  • Curved steel structure made up of more than 2,500 sections of steelwork. Shape is designed to reflect the geometry of the cycling track, rising in height by 12m from shallowest point to the highest

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