Climate emergency

All our carbon reduction efforts are aligned with the Mayor's Zero Carbon Action Plan to limit global warming by 1.5° by ensuring our strategies and plans for the development and operation of the Park are aligned with a Mayor’s climate change targets. 

LLDC has considered the likely implications of climate change on the Park under various climate change scenarios to help inform our climate response including: 

• Warmer and drier summers  
• Milder winters with increased rainfall 
• Significant reduction in snowfall  
• Heatwaves and droughts  

Altered weather patterns have implications for local ecosystems, biodiversity, people, and their livelihoods.  LLDC is working to consider how best to adapt to these anticipated changes.   

The Park is powered by two energy centres which together form the largest district energy network in the UK. Combined heat and power (CHP) engines and chillers provide heating and cooling to venues, commercial buildings, and residential properties in and around the Park. In addition, a large biomass boiler provides heat to the district energy network. Biomass fuel is sourced predominantly from arboriculture waste within 100km radius of the Park.  

The energy centres have been designed for additional boilers and CHP engines to be added to meet energy demand as further developments are added to the Park. The centres’ CHP engines have been designed to use both natural gas and gas that has been blended with biogas, and other alternative fuels with lower carbon content.

All homes at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park are designed to achieve net zero carbon associated with their operational (in use) energy consumption.  LLDC’s “Fabric First” approach helps to ensure that energy demand (and subsequent CO₂ emissions) is kept to an absolute minimum through high-performance design and construction methodology. 

The document Preparing for a 1.5ºC future sets out LLDC’s vision and aspirations for the built environment within the context of the climate emergency. It provides pragmatic guidance on the delivery of exemplar developments when preparing for a 1.5ºC aligned Paris Agreement future.

In connected systems such as our district heat network, the ability to predict energy demand is of great importance to system operators concerned with demand-side management. Engaging customers through use of digital technology, proposing dynamic new services and tariffs that contrast the traditional energy supply tariff business model is becoming increasingly desirable for both the end users, generators, and suppliers. Our passive heating trial study focused on the user-engagement aspects of smart heating controls, as a potential method for improving demand predictability and improving the customer experience with residential heating systems.  

The study investigated the heating behaviour and perceptions of a sample of 23 residents connected to the district energy network, exploring whether behaviour and perceptions changed following the upgrade of traditional programmable thermostats to smart, wireless heating controllers. The results showed the potential for smart heating control retrofits to increase the ease of controlling heating systems. 

The Park is located within the Lower Lee Valley, enclosed by a network of waterways that flow from Hertfordshire into the River Thames. Managing flood risk within this area is vital to protect Park users and to ensure nearby development is resilient to flooding. The north of the Park is designed with natural flood management and drainage features such as swales and reed beds. This design helps to absorb increased water levels and reduces the risk of flood damage to surrounding areas. 

Similar consideration has been given at micro levels, such as at Hackney Wick Station where sections of the station are significantly low, with the potential risk of flooding. A Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SuDS) attenuates run-off of flood waters from the station to the surrounding area, decreasing the amount of impermeable area allowing infiltration of flood waters into the ground, relieving pressures from drainage systems.