BSI Education

Sustainable development

Lesson plan 1

Auditing sustainable management of events: Case Study – Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, London 2012.

Learning Objectives

Pupils should be able to:

  • understand the consequences of organising and managing an event sustainably.
  • understand the value of an organization implementing a sustainable management system.
  • describe how resources used in the planning, execution, and clean up after an international event such as the Games can be managed in an environmentally responsible and sustainable manner:

  - in the planning stage
  - during the event itself
  - after the event has taken place.

Cross-curricular links

Resources

Starter

Look through the planned events proposed for the Games.
Ask students to suggest all the organizations and people who might be involved in working together to stage the Games, and write up their suggestions. Ask students to research statistical data about the Games from the London2012 website.

  • How many people are predicted to attend?
  • How many countries are taking part?
  • Number of athletes?
  • How long does the event last?
  • Where will athletes stay?
  • Where will their families and friends stay?
  • What about people who are just coming to London for tourism (not for the Games)?
  • How will the human traffic be managed?
  • How will people travel about?
  • How will people get access to food and drink?
  • How many toilets will they have access to?
  • How will this impact on the water and sewage system?
  • How will this activity in London affect other parts of the UK/Europe/the world?

Ask students to think about other questions they may have about the geographical impacts of the Games.

Teaching sequence

Activity 1
Students need to consider how the Games will be run and whether it would be possible to get all the people involved to manage their activities sustainably? This includes the planning stage, during the event, and after the event.

Activity 2
Using Activity sheet 1 students consider their own (future) roles in London 2012, and how they can make their Games Experience a sustainable event. Encourage students to think creatively about how sustainability can be achieved in different ways by different individuals.
Students then consider how this could work on a larger scale, by creating an industry flow diagram (directly linked to GCSE economic geography/agriculture).
If students need help or inspiration use the link list for further information.

Activity 3
Using the results from Activity sheet 1, students design an information poster that could be distributed to businesses and organizations about implementing sustainable management procedures. It is important that students consider Environmental Management Standards and the ‘Plan-Do-Check-Act’ methodology as outlined in Activity sheet 2.

Background information about Standards for teachers.

Plenary

Class feeds their comments and findings back to the teacher. Each group then presents their poster to the class, highlighting the key elements they have concluded are important when assessing the sustainable management of an organization.
Class discusses how implementing sustainable management systems can add value to an organization (e.g. long term cost savings, high level of social responsibility leads to higher profile with customers and within the community, marketing advantages over competitors).
It is important for students to realise that over time and space, and across different types of organizations, sustainable management systems will need to be implemented, monitored and altered in order that companies improve their sustainability.

A selection of websites is available