To the victor, the laurels. Or rather, at the London 2012 Olympic Games, a pot plant.
In an attempt to be environmentally competitive, organisers of the London Olympics are planning to scrap the exotic bouquets usually presented to winners and replace them with “greener” greenery.
They have ruled out flying fancy blooms from abroad because of the hefty carbon footprint that would create. Instead they plan to give athletes home-grown plants, including the sort that champions might want to pop in a little bed of peat in a window box when they get back home – if their countries’ import rules permit.
Tessa Jowell, the minister for the Olympics, has confirmed in parliament that “locally sourced plants” will replace cut flowers as gifts to medal winners, competitors and other visiting dignitaries in 2012.
She said the awarding of potted plants was “absolutely” being considered as part of the sustainability agenda, along with English cut flowers. “We have fabulous British flowers in the summer. It won’t be necessary to fly flowers thousands of miles,” she said.
Not only will the plants and flowers be grown in Britain they will be wrapped in “natural materials” such as raffia and recycled paper.
The Royal Horticultural Society says British-grown summer plants such as daisies, sunflowers and miniature roses could easily replace exotic blooms, such as orchids, as gifts for medal winners.
Plants that match the colour of the medal, such as the silver-tinted wormwood, used in traditional medicine as an antidote for gout and indigestion, and the aptly named “bronze medal lily”, could be supplied.
“Replacing bouquets is doable from a plant point of view. You can have a very pretty plant,” said Helen Bostock, a Royal Horticultural Society adviser. “The tricky thing is how you present it. The Olympian would have to keep it upright.”
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games said awarding plants rather than cut flowers was one of the options being considered in keeping with the sustainability plans. It said final decisions about the type of flower would be made nearer 2012.
The organisers are also looking at a carbon-neutral Olympic flame fuelled by waste wood.
Filed under: Fuel, Government, Stupid | Tagged: Olympics, Tessa Jowell
