How are you benchmarking / measuring the claim to be the most sustainable games yet?

We have reviewed the sustainability records of the last two Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the Gold Coast and have conducted analysis across a number of key environmental sustainability metrics. From this analysis, which covers topics including Carbon & Air Quality, Circular Economy and Conservation, we are confident that our approach builds upon, and pushes forward, the sustainability efforts of previous Games.

We are committed to clear and transparent reporting and will report against a range of KPIs across the seven sustainability pillars in our pledge, as part of our Post-Games Sustainability report. Sustainability is also a key workstream feeding into the Games-wide Evaluation, which will independently measure and assess whether we achieve our vision against the five Games’ mission pillars and capture the impact and legacy of hosting the Games.

What steps are you taking to manage your carbon emissions?

Our approach to managing our carbon emissions and ensuring a carbon neutral legacy involves four overarching steps:

1. Understand

Assessing what our potential carbon footprint looks like through initial baselining. All our baseline and final footprint calculations are aligned with best practice methodologies including the International Olympic Committee carbon footprint methodology and Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

2. Reduction

Prioritising and focussing on significant areas within our operations where we can reduce our carbon footprint in the first instance.

3. Measure Final Footprint

Quantify the final carbon footprint of the Games. An independent third-party will check this calculation to ensure a high-level of confidence in the final carbon footprint assessment.

4. Offset

Ensure that our final carbon footprint is equally balanced out by credible carbon offsets to achieve a carbon neutral legacy.

To ensure the overall approach outlined above is credible, an experienced independent organisation will be used to critically review our approach against best practice standards.

What are your main sources of carbon emissions?

As we currently understand it from our baselining work, our main sources of carbon emissions are spectator travel, international travel of athletes and teams and temporary infrastructure and catering.

Surely having thousands of athletes and guests travelling to the Games by air, as well as spectator travel defeats the purpose of a carbon neutral Games?

Without athletes there wouldn’t be a Commonwealth Games, and we believe strongly in the power of sport and culture and celebrating these together to unite and empower people.

As we are a global Games, we must accept that most athletes need to fly to the UK/Birmingham, and currently travelling by air is the most direct and time-efficient method. As we are unable to reduce the emissions impact of athletes/teams flying to the Games, we will offset this impact through the Commonwealth Forest and, where required, using credible offsets which meet internationally recognisable standards.

Based on the ticket base from previous Commonwealth Games, we expect most of our ticketed spectators to be from the UK, and therefore not to be flying. We will be encouraging the use of lower carbon forms of travel such as promoting active travel and encouraging the use of public transport.

What’s included in your carbon footprint?

The scope of the Games’ carbon footprint has been set by aligning with the International Olympic Committee’s Carbon Footprint Methodology for the Olympic Games. This methodology has been developed by the IOC specifically for large-scale events, and is aligned with the requirements of the GHG Protocol. The boundary of the Games carbon footprint has also been independently validated by a third-party experienced carbon accounting consultant.

The Birmingham 2022 Games’ carbon footprint includes all the activities you associate with the preparation and operation of the Games including, but not limited to, categories such as temporary infrastructure, technology equipment, international travel of athletes and teams, logistics, event hosted transport, energy use, signage, official merchandising, Queen’s Baton Relay, catering and waste. It also includes spectator travel, both domestic and international. There are over 20 categories of activities within our carbon footprint, covering direct and indirect emissions.

It is also worth highlighting what is not included within our carbon footprint. The construction project of Sandwell Aquatics Centre and the refurbishment works at Alexander Stadium are excluded from the Games carbon footprint due to the limited involvement of the Organising Committee through the design and build phase, and the strong legacy use which will see venues regularly used long after the Games. However, all temporary overly and infrastructure going into the stadium at Games time to increase capacity further, and all operational energy use to ensure all Games operations are serviced is specific to the Games and is therefore within the carbon footprint.

Why aren’t the construction projects of Alexander Stadium and Sandwell Aquatics Centre included within your footprint?

After careful consideration and consultation with independent consultants, it was decided that the two capital build projects (refurbishment of Alexander Stadium and construction of Sandwell Aquatics centre) associated with the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games should be excluded from the Games’ footprint based on the following context and rationale:

1. The very limited involvement of the Organising Committee (OC) through the design and build phase
2. The projects being part of wider redevelopment plans with strong legacy use which will see the venues regularly used long after the Games, therefore the Games will only be using the venues for a very small fraction of their total lifecycle.

Further information about both capital projects can be found below.

Refurbishment of Alexander Stadium (AXS)

Ownership - Capitalising on the award of the Games’ to Birmingham, the refurbishment of Alexander Stadium is part of the wider £500 million+ regeneration of Perry Barr. Birmingham City Council (BCC) are responsible for delivering this project and the OC have very little influence over the refurbishment of the stadium. Funding for the Alexander Stadium redevelopment comes from Birmingham City Council, The Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership and West Midlands Combined Authority.

There are numerous areas where the stadium has been designed to reduce the embodied and operational carbon impact. For example:

• Designed to ensure it has an appropriate capacity for legacy use. The permanent capacity will be 18,000, with extra capacity for Games time supported by temporary seating (up to 30,000).
• Delivery of a certified Net Zero construction of the new Stadium facility, with Gold or VCS Standard offset projects. This covers the on-site operations (i.e. fuel usage and construction waste) and is reported monthly to BCC.
• Use of 100% renewable electricity

Legacy - Alexander Stadium has been designed with legacy owners front of mind:

• Post-Games, legacy tenant Birmingham City University will relocate their Sports Science faculty to the stadium. As a new base for up to 1000 students, the stadium will remain an important part of the sporting fabric of the city, region, and nation.
• The long-time local athletics team, Birchfield Harriers, will also continue to be based at Alexander the stadium Post-Games.

Construction of Sandwell Aquatics Centre (SAC)

Ownership: Sandwell County Council has full ownership of the design, planning, build and legacy of the Centre meaning the OC has little to no influence on the base build of the Centre. The funding bodies for this project are: Central Government, Sandwell Council, Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership, Sport England and Sandwell Leisure Trust.

Legacy - “The provision of new leisure facilities has long been an ambition in Sandwell and the opportunity to host the Games has accelerated the pace and scale of that ambition” (Games Legacy Plan).

With this, the centre is on loan to Birmingham 2022 prior to it becoming a new, much-needed community leisure centre.

• The facility is designed to be reconfigured (temporary seating removed and gym/sports hall facilities added) following the Games, so it best serves the needs of the community when it reopens as a community facility in the summer of 2023.
• The centre is designed to meet the needs of local communities in Sandwell with the provision for women’s only exercise, a football pitch, an urban park, and a children’s play area.
• To ensure the world-class facility has a swimming and diving pathway post-Games, Sandwell Council is working closely with Swim England.
• Sandwell Council have also formed a 10-year partnership with the University of Wolverhampton which will see students study and train within the Aquatics Centre as part of their curriculum from 2023.

What is Carbon offsetting and what is your approach to carbon offsetting?

Carbon offsetting is where you compensate for the emissions you create by avoiding or removing an equal amount of carbon emissions elsewhere.

Our priority is reduction first, but where emissions cannot be avoided or reduced, they will be rebalanced by investing in credible carbon offset projects which meet widely recognised international standards.

There are two elements to the OC’s offsetting approach:

The Commonwealth Forest: Working in partnership with Severn Trent, our Official Nature & Carbon Neutral Supporter – 2,022 acres of new forest will be planted across the West Midlands and the wider Midlands region. Over time as the trees mature, they will remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and in doing so will offset a large part of the Games projected carbon footprint. With this approach we won’t be carbon neutral at the end point of the Games but will create a legacy for carbon neutrality as the forest matures. This process will be validated and verified by the UK Woodland Carbon Code – the best practice standard for UK woodland creation projects where claims are made about the carbon dioxide they sequester (remove from the air).

Voluntary Carbon Market: If required, carbon credits will also be purchased from the voluntary carbon market. Any carbon credits purchased in this way will have to meet widely recognised international standards ensuring they are responsibly created and managed (such as Gold Standard and Verified Carbon Standard).

What do you mean by creating a carbon neutral legacy?  

While we will take steps to try and reduce our carbon footprint in the first instance, we also want to take responsibility for our unavoidable emissions. To leave a carbon neutral legacy, we need to balance out our final footprint through credible offsetting projects. A large proportion of the Games offsetting will come from the planting of a new Commonwealth Forest across the West Midlands and wider Midlands region, in partnership with Severn Trent. As the forest involves the planting of new trees over several seasons, the carbon benefits will not be immediate. It takes some time for these trees to grow and sequester and balance out the necessary carbon – this is why we refer to it as a carbon neutral legacy.

Where is the Commonwealth Forest going to be and when will it be planted?

Local Authorities and other landowners are helping to identify available land, and then from a short list, locations are reviewed and selected based on the most appropriate places to plant and nourish a new forest.

The forest will not be in one location. It will be made up of several/many woodlands spread across the Midlands.

It is expected that the majority of the forest will be within the Midlands region. As the young trees become woodlands over time it is also expected that the forest will provide a strong legacy for the region over and above offsetting, including benefits to biodiversity, flood risk reduction and supporting physical and mental wellbeing through increasing green recreational spaces for people to enjoy.

As trees can only be planted at certain times in the year, known as planting seasons, planting of the Commonwealth Forest will be conducted over multiple planting seasons. The current plan is for this to take three years.

What is the process for ensuring the Commonwealth Forest is a credible offsetting project? How have you calculated the offset and how long will it take?

Throughout planning and preparation, the UK Woodland Carbon Code has been used to estimate the amount of forest needed to offset the residual emissions of the Games. The Woodland Carbon Code is internationally recognised for high standards of sustainable forest management and carbon management and is endorsed by ICROA (The International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance), the global umbrella body for carbon reduction and offset providers in the voluntary market.  The code is the voluntary standard for UK woodland creation projects where claims are made about the carbon dioxide they sequester (remove from the air). Initial estimates were based on mixed native woodland, and as each site goes through the suitable verification process, these calculations will be finalised.

Each site will undergo the Woodland Carbon Code Registration and Validation & Verification stages throughout the lifetime of the woodland. Verification audits will be undertaken at set intervals (every five or 10 years) to ensure the trees are sequestering as much carbon as initially calculated, and to ensure the woodlands are in good healthy condition and are being managed in line with best practice. Once the carbon sequestered during those set intervals has been verified, each tonne of carbon dioxide can be converted to a Woodland Carbon Unit (WCU). These units will then be retired and linked to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, to leave a carbon neutral legacy. Taking into account time taken for newly planted trees to grow to maturity and deliver full carbon reduction benefits, the carbon neutral legacy, managed in line with the woodland code, is projected to be delivered by 2060. This will be revised as planting is verified.

How are you working with landowners and how will the forest be managed?

Severn Trents’ Forest delivery team work closely with landowners to ensure their woodland meets their long-term objectives whilst ensuring the right tree is planted in the right location. Land isn’t always suitable for tree planting for a number of reasons, for example Special Sites of Scientific Interest, or on deep peat. Relevant surveys will be undertaken at each site to ensure no protected features or designations are damaged or destroyed in the creation of the Commonwealth forest. The delivery team work closely with the key regulators such as Forestry Commission, Natural England & Environment Agency to ensure community consultation is undertaken, and permission is obtained to plant trees in these locations.

Each forest will be designed in line with United Kingdom Forest Standard, and future management operations will also be in line with best practice and follow the management principles set out in the UK Woodland Carbon Code application. This is to ensure these woodlands leave a lasting legacy and the saplings grow to a stage where they can be deemed a tree, or woodland.

What is Air Quality and how does it relate to climate change?

Air pollution is the largest environmental risk to health globally. It is caused by the emission of gases such as nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and particles into the atmosphere. Air pollutants are usually short lived in the atmosphere, so the impact of air pollution is felt in the region in which pollutants are emitted.

Climate change is also one of the largest environmental challenges facing the world. Climate change caused by the emission of greenhouses gases such as carbon dioxide is causing a rise in global average temperatures with temperatures projected to be 1.5-4°C above the pre-industrial average by the end of this century.

Air pollution and increasing greenhouse gases responsible climate change are often emitted by the same sources, for example traffic, so action to combat global climate change will often have positive local impacts through improved local air quality.

What is the Games doing to minimise impact on Air Quality?

To reduce the emission of air pollutants we aim to minimise additional traffic during the Games period. Working with Transport for West Midlands, we encourage spectators to use public transport, walk or cycle to visit the Games wherever possible.  

We are also working with the WM-Air program at the University of Birmingham to measure and model air quality during the Games. Air quality will be measured at the University and Alexander Stadium, and additional air quality sensors have been deployed at Edgbaston and Alexander Stadium.

What is the clean air zone in Birmingham and why is it important?

A Clean Air Zone is an area where targeted action is taken to improve air quality, in particular by discouraging the most polluting vehicles from entering the zone. No vehicle is banned in the zone, but those which do not have clean enough engines will have to pay a daily charge if they travel within the area.

The Birmingham Clean Air Zone is the area inside the A4540 Middleway Ring Road and came into force in June 2021. More details on the Birmingham Clean Air Zone can be found on the Transport for West Midlands website.