I confess that I have never been much of an Olympics fan; indeed, I think the last Olympics I watched were the 1980 Lake Placid games. I suspect many of those same athletes are not still actively competing... So I have not been paying much attention to the London games, although in retrospect  wish I had seen the opening ceremonies which some British friends described to me as “bizarre” and an American friend referred to as “pretty cool.” Go figure. For our purposes here, as I have sporadically posted over the past couple of years, Olympics organizers actively sought to make the London Olympics the most sustainable Games ever and while I am sure they will draw no small amount of criticism, GreenBiz has a rundown of the top 10 sustainability achievements of the 2012 Summer Games. Not everyone is impressed, however: a popular commuter route for cyclists was closed for security reasons—sending bicycles down dangerous diversions. The New York Times’ Dot Earth blog has a Q&A with David Stubbs, the head of sustainability for the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Here’s an interesting bit of the exchange:

Q. Some of the London 2012 corporate sponsors, like Dow and BP, have had significant problems in their environmental records. How would you respond to critics who have said this undermines your sustainability message? A. Well look, you can’t put on the games without major commercial sponsors these days. But we made our sustainability criteria very clear, and all the partners that have come on board have had to demonstrate that they would meet them. I think a number of them have signed on to fast track changes in their own business practices.

I’m sure the committee’s attempts are not perfect, and sustainability is such a broad and complex issue—and mounting an event like the Olympics such a monumental challenge—that I am not surprised if there are some compromises that need to be made. But each Olympics is an improvement over previous ones, the notion of sustainability as an ongoing process rather than an ultimate destination. I say we praise the efforts to address the issue as thoroughly as they did, note where there is room for improvement, and enjoy the Games.