Inform Back page Notes from Selsdon
Sustainable Olympics. But what’s the truth about Wenlock and Mandeville?
As the news spilled out, the huge number of partners charged with making London 2012 the most sustainable games ever must have been spitting blood, furious that something that ought to have been in hand could have spiralled completely out of control. Investigations were under way last month
in a bid to determine whether claims that cud- dly toy versions of the Games mascots – the ridiculously named Wenlock and Mandeville (pictured) – are being made by poorly paid workers in a Chinese factory are true. If the claims are substantiated, it’s a disaster. Having met some of the people responsible for making sustainability a central theme of the Games, I know how seriously it has been taken – from the low-carbon building materi- als used extensively throughout the Stratford park, to the green transport plans being drawn up as we speak to making the impact of the Games’ emissions as low as possible. To fall down on such a seemingly basic element of the whole sustainability plan – to make sure the official merchandise isn’t com-
THE TEAM
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ing from a sweatshop in the Far East – would be such a painful error.
According to various media reports, workers making the toy products for the Telford-based Golden Bear firm (which sells into, among others, a socially-aware John Lewis) were labouring for more than 11 hours a day for as little as 26 pence (40 US cents) an hour.
Of course, we don’t know whether these claims are true; and with such a well-written procurement strategy in place, developed by such a skilled team of sustainability pros, it is shocking to think it might happen. But there’s no smoke without fire. This episode only goes to show that no mat- ter how well-intentioned policies are enforced, they can easily be bypassed, accidentally or otherwise.
It also reinforces the desperate need for the creation of much better standards in this area. Completely unrelated, it also begs the ques- tion: who the hell is buying these mascot toys anyway?
THE EDITORIAL PANEL
John Alker director of policy, UK Green Building Council Mark Barthel special adviser, WRAP Charlie Browne sustainable development manager, Ikea David Crowhurst BRE Environment Anya Ledwith ESHCon Liz Parkes head of waste, Environment Agency Tim Pollard head of sustainability, Wolesley Amita Vaux head of advisory services, Business in the Community Bruno Zago UK & Ireland environment manager, Hewlett Packard
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