Fortunately, they not only constructed a cutting-edge venue using innovative design but created a precedent for the use of temporary venues, serving as a catalyst for regeneration and a sustainable future.

At the UK Trade & Investment (UKT&I) Global Sports Business Summit sustainability seminar earlier this month I was given an insight into one of the major ways of managing the human impact on the environment: the management of the consumption of existing resources within a sporting event of this size.

When London won the bid to host the Games in 2005, London 2012 set out its visions behind the design strategy for the Games – in particular assessing how many existing venues could be adapted for use, with the competition area and grandstands being swiftly constructed on a temporary basis and later removed leaving no trace of the event.

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) was tasked with delivering all the permanent sporting venues while LOCOG (the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games) focused on the temporary infrastructure.

Horse Guards Parade highlighted London 2012's leading-edge temporary construction and enevironmental regeneration techniques

Horse Guards Parade in central London was one of 34 Olympic venues which showcased LOCOG's finest use of temporary construction and environmental regeneration. An 18,000-seat arena, located in the heart of London's ceremonial life, was transformed in just six weeks to create an area similar in size to Wimbledon's Centre Court – using one of the city's most iconic landmarks, the Prime Minister's residence at 10 Downing Street, as its backdrop.

With 2012 also marking the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, LOCOG and its technical partners were left with just 36 days to set up the temporary beach volleyball venue and support buildings while ensuring the hustle and bustle of London life continued to run smoothly.

LOCOG's partners – design and overlay architect team Populous and engineering design consultancy Atkins, which set the final brief for each venue – contracted a single design-and-build supplier to start work at Horse Guards Parade on June 18 with a deadline of July 28.

The ultimate challenge: to design distinctive a venue that would achieve maximum cost savings, create optimum conditions for athletes to perform at the highest level, demonstrate environmental innovation, produce a positive reputation and – crucially – be reused, relocated, reassembled or recycled while, of course, minimising the impact on the environment.

With such excellence and experience it was only fitting that Arena Group was commissioned as the main supplier of the Horse Guards Parade construction project; the firm was able to offer a comprehensive £7 million ($11.2 million/€8.8 million) outlay and take care of project management and overlay planning from concept to completion.

The beach volleyball temporary venue at Horse Guards Parade takes shape

Joe O'Neill, global head of Overlay and Event Services at Arena Group provided me with a fascinating insight into how sustainability involves, at its heart, the responsible management of resource use.

"We were involved in [constructing] many of the [temporary] venues but it was Horse Guards Parade that best demonstrated our unique contractual arrangement with LOCOG in that it was a 'turnkey' project," he explained. "We were the main contractor and this allowed us to showcase best practice and our supply partners [Creative Technology and Aggreko] who were on the panel with me."

To quickly clarify, a turnkey contract is a business arrangement through which a project is delivered in a completed state, with a developer hired to finish an entire project without the need for any owner input; once the programme is completed, the developer then "turns the key" over to the new owner.

Last year some 2,000 tonnes of sand was transported from a quarry in Godstone, Surrey, by 120 trucks in just a single day to create the capital's very own beach, covering the main competition and two warm-up courts plus a brace of training camps ready for the August 2011 test event. A further 3,000 tonnes of sand was later added to the courts in preparation for the first game of the Olympics on July 28. After the Games this 5,000 tonnes of sand was donated to various sports venues around the country.

Populous described the beach volleyball venue as having a "high-energy atmosphere", thanks to a lower bowl at courtside level allowing for front-row viewing. In addition, a three-sided upper bowl offered fans with stunning views over London.

The scaffold-type seating that comes hand in hand with so many temporary venues can be susceptible to windy conditions. For this reason wind monitoring was crucial and to allay any possible problems the seats, along with the several broadcast towers and pedestrian bridges, were draped in Olympic logo fabric, increasing the wind loading on the structures.

Greenwich Park was one of three sustainable temporary stadiums used for London 2012

With the iconic Horse Guards Parade acting as home to the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony, which takes place each June to mark the Queen's birthday, the grounds are used to seeing the erection of temporary grandstands; and so while it was crucial to ensure the site suffered minimal impact before, during and after the Games, it is nevertheless less sensitive than most locations to these temporary structures.

As the Olympic Flame was extinguished the Horse Guards Parade temporary venue was quickly deconstructed and the area returned to business as usual, leaving no negative effect on the environment. All materials used at the venue – including the seats – will now be reused or recycled.

"Some of the Horse Guards Parade seats will be integrated into our UK business model but the majority will be used for the FIFA 2014 World Cup in Brazil and for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics," revealed O'Neill.

Temporary facilities create a unique opportunity to raise awareness among service providers and the local community about the benefits of sustainable living as well as helping enhance environmental best practice in the region.

"I think people will have a higher regard for the possibility of temporary venues, not from a cost but from a time perspective, as they are quick [to construct and deconstruct] and have great benefits," O'Neill claimed, referring to their positive impact on London 2012.

North Greenwich Arena was another sustainable temporary stadium used for the Olympics

"I have had my eyes opened to what sustainability is all about, we have had specialist advice, we have got accreditations to various national standards now and I think this is demonstrating best practice."

While temporary venues have undoubtedly proven a big success within the organisation of London 2012, this type of construction is not always at the top of everyone's agenda when developing an Olympic Games programme.

"But from the point of view of sustainability the material can be turned back into infantries or back to the service companies that provided them, and it avoids the problem of permanent buildings not having a use post the Games," O'Neill opined.

LOCOG and its partners followed a strategy which was open to both flexibility and sustainable challenge, involving high investment costs on the one hand but, on the other, an intent on creating a regeneration legacy.

By sharing standards and introducing new ways of behaviour, future Olympic hosts, like London, could be motivated to introduce environmental and social improvements in their events.

"A successful example of the delivery team working with the design team right from the onset is the beach volleyball venue," pointed out Jeff Burke, business development manager of ES Global Ltd, which specialises in the delivery of dynamic stages, temporary structures, event overlay and expert project management.

Dow STYROFOAM™ insulation was used in the construction of the ice rink at Sochi.Park during London 2012

Yet, as science taught us, none of these structures would live without energy. And so Aggreko, exclusive supplier of temporary energy services at London 2012 and which was involved with the Atlanta 1996 and Beijing 2008 Games, ensured a smarter and high efficiency cooling, heating and power energy system designed to shape our future.

Using over 260MW of power via more than 500 generator sets, 1,500 kilometres of cable and 4,500 distribution panels, the system operated not only at Horse Guards Parade but at each of the 34 venues during the Games to provide prime or back-up power. This allowed Robert Wells, head of Aggreko's Olympics Business for London 2012 and Sochi 2014, to proclaim that the Scottish company provided the largest amount of prime power for a single sporting event ever in the UK.

In addition to Horse Guards Parade, London also boasted three other sustainable temporary stadia: Hyde Park, home to the triathlon and 10km open water swim events, held 3,000 spectators; the 20,000-seat North Greenwich Arena, most popularly known as the O2 arena; and Greenwich Park, home to equestrian and modern pentathlon competitions, whose 23,000-capacity grandstand was constructed from plywood, aluminium and steel, and held above ground by over 2,000 pillars.

Hyde Park was also home to Sochi.Park, a nearly 6,000-square metre presentation area of Sochi 2014 in London. Sochi.Park housed an ice rink featuring ice made possible by science from Dow – specifically DOWCAL™ 20G heat transfer fluid and STYROFOAM™ insulation. In order to help keep the ice surface cold in the middle of summer, Dow provided more than 600 square metres of Dow STYROFOAM™ insulation that also minimise energy consumption while ensuring a consistent and reliable skating surface. Both the insulation and heat transfer fluid are being re-used following the Games.

A key aspect of the UKT&I Global Sports Business Summit sustainability seminar was to highlight the UK's delivery capabilities and, more importantly, demonstrate how easily these skills can be transferred internationally – with London 2012 serving merely as a "house-warming party", opening the door to the world for a lifetime of sustainability. London 2012 must be used as a starting, not a finishing, point as the innovation will continue to evolve, we were told.

London 2012 has indeed raised the bar, from a sustainability perspective, to which other Games can now aspire.

Mike Hall, a partner at FaulknerBrowns Architects, expanded on this point in the wake of London 2012: "It is now how to convince clients to take sustainability seriously and [about sustainable products'] long-term use, wider benefits and the fact that sustainability doesn't need money.

The Sochi 2014 Olympic Park will be adapted for a more sustainable future

But will those British companies which have so evidently created international-standard products be able to convince architects involved in Rio 2016 to use British hardware?

"British companies have shown that they are well equipped to provide them [Rio 2016] with the right facilities," insisted Hall. "We need to demonstrate value and generate the desire to need our products."

Evidently going green is rubbing off on future Games organisers. The Sochi 2014 Olympic Park, situated on the coastal cluster of the Russian city, will be adapted for a more sustainable future. It will comprise 30,000 seats for the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Games, increasing to 45,000 for the FIFA 2018 World Cup, before being reducing to 25,000 once the sporting events are over. Durability is key to reuse of Sochi's Olympic venues, and Dow polyurethane (PU) materials will enhance the durability of 1,100 seats in the Big Ice Arena. Dow PU materials may also be used in the figure skating venue (Engeocom) seating, the main media centre, Olympic Oval (Center-Omega) and other locations.

Hugh Robertson, British Minister for Sport and Olympics, summarised the core principles behind the success of the "Greenest Games of our Time" as "early engagement".

Although the temporary beach volleyball venue at Horse Guards Parade came and went in just under eight weeks what is certain to remain is the legacy left behind in its footprints.

Lauren Mattera is a reporter for insidethegames.

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