New insights added to ground-breaking London 2012 website
Valuable lessons on how to stage a global event have been added to an innovative and growing service for industry and the public sector.
The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) launched its ‘Learning Legacy’ website in October 2011 in order to maintain and raise the bar set by the London 2012 construction project and ensure knowledge gained from staging the world’s biggest sporting event was not lost. It has grown to more than 450 papers across an increased range of subjects that now includes transport and the staging of the Games.
Now the responsibility of the Cabinet Office’s Major Projects Authority, the website can be found on the Learning Legacy website. It is a major showcase for UK plc as the government continues to capitalise on the positive effect London 2012 has had. It marks the first time a UK construction project has captured intellectual capital on this scale and is supported by industry organisations that helped shape its contents.
The website, which now includes significant contribution from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), in addition to new material from the ODA, consists of ten themes and builds on the shared ethos of setting targets well above industry benchmarks, and in many cases exceeding these. Like the ODA, LOCOG held itself to a demanding set of standards, in some cases creating one where none had previously existed.
Sir John Armitt, Chairman of the ODA, said: “Learning Legacy was created with a view to being expanded over time so as to record the depth of lessons learned across the project, both in building and staging the Games. The inclusion of areas such as transport and the focus on sustainable delivery of the event will benefit future projects, particularly large sporting and cultural occasions that attract significant numbers of people.”
Seb Coe, Chair of the London 2012 Organising Committee and the Prime Minister’s Legacy Ambassador, said: “This is a tremendous resource the ODA has created and one that will be enormously helpful to businesses large and small. We all learnt a vast amount as we built and delivered the Games. I am proud of the many initiatives and industry standards we set along the journey and am delighted that this resource keeps growing and is being shared and, I hope will be built upon, in the future. British business and know how has never been in more demand.”
New Learning Legacy lessons touch on the following areas:
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Raising the bar for the UK’s construction industry: The ODA worked closely with contractors, industry partners, government bodies and academia to capture the lessons learned and best-practice examples and innovations for use by future construction and engineering projects. A number of additional papers have been added on topics such as use of solar panels, community engagement, project close out, the people strategy and construction logistics.
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Raising the bar for sustainable major events: LOCOG has contributed more than 80 papers on areas relating to the staging of the Games, such as sustainability, equality and inclusion and health and safety. These include diverse topics such as the sustainable procurement of Games maker uniforms, carbon foot-printing the Games, compliance with labour standard catering, temporary power generation, zero waste policy and sustainability of the Ceremonies.
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Raising the bar in the UK’s Transport industry: Around £6.5 billion was invested in transport networks and infrastructure in advance of the Games, with more than £400 million invested by the ODA. Valuable lessons were learned about planning, building and operating a transport network able to meet the challenges presented. Transport legacy reports were produced by the ODA with support from the main transport delivery partners, and documents how transport for the Games was achieved, including papers on transport mapping, analytics and pedestrian and crowd modelling.
In September 2012, it was announced that the Cabinet Office’s Major Projects Authority would take control of the Learning Legacy website to help ensure that the lessons of the Olympic project are preserved for future generations. For further information see here
The ten key Learning Legacy themes are: design and engineering innovation; equality, Inclusion, Employment and skills; health and safety; master-planning and town planning; procurement and supply chain management; programme organisation and project management; sustainability; systems and technology; transport; and archaeology.
The majority of themes are broken down into the following sub-sections:
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Micro reports: Short examples of lessons learned, best practice and innovations from the construction programme by the ODA, its Delivery Partner, contractors and industry partners.
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Case studies: Peer-reviewed papers on lessons learned, best practice and innovations from across the Programme by the ODA and its Delivery Partner, the supply chain and industry.
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Research summaries: Summary reports of research projects undertaken by academia and industry on the London 2012 construction project.
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Champion products: Examples of tools and templates used successfully on the project.
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Learning Legacy partners: The ODA, in partnership with its supply chain, worked with a number of industry and professional bodies to deliver a series of events to disseminate the lessons learned from the construction of the Olympic Park and the transport programme.
Further information
For information on any events around the Learning Legacy initiative, please contact the following organisations:
Association for Project Management Chartered Institute of Building Health and Safety Executive Institution of Civil Engineers Institution of Occupational Safety and Health Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors The Landscape Institute UK Green Building Council The Institution of Engineering and Technology