The summer Olympics begin today in London and the $14.5 billion investment is being promoted as the greenest ever.

London's bid for the Olympics revolved completely around sustainability through the concept, "Towards a One Planet Olympics."

Besides the green building techniques used throughout the process, perhaps most impressive is the organizers' strategy to use it as an opportunity to clean up brownfields and rejuvenate some inner city areas.

The organizers embedded sustainability from the start, vowing to make the games carbon neutral and create zero waste. An initial assessment informed decisions, such as having trains deliver half the materials to the site, reducing carbon emissions by a factor of five.

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