Lord Coe has been personally asked why the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) has adopted an FSC-only timber procurement stance by LibDem peer Lord Clement-Jones.

LOCOG takes over as the procurement body for remaining London Olympics projects from the Olympic Development Authority (ODA) in January. For timber and wood products used in Games buildings, the latter set up a panel of timber companies to act as the main supply channel and adopted the government’s own procurement criteria, as established by its Central Point of Expertise on Timber (CPET. This gave equal weight as proof of legality and sustainability to PEFC and FSC certification schemes.

However, LOCOG is not continuing with this approach. It has been reported that it is still planning to use the approved supplier panel, but preferring FSC certification.

Lord Clement-Jones has previously taken up timber industry issues and wrote to Lord Coe on December 1 following approaches from the trade.

In his letter, he points out that LOCOG’s procurement approach differs from the government’s and that “despite a number of representations” this had not been changed.

He focused on a particular Olympics purchase of composite timber decking, which was reported previously in TTJ.

He said a German product was likely to lose out to a Malaysian competitor because it was PEFC-certified, despite the fact that that the manufacturer had undertaken to recycle it post-use and it had a lower carbon footprint, as it had less far to travel.

He also cited the TTJ report that choosing the German decking over the Malaysian could save £100,000.

“In the light of the current situation, it would surely make sense for LOCOG to review their policy as a matter of urgency to eliminate the risks of over-priced procurement and lower standards of overall environmental practice,” wrote Lord Clement-Jones.

At the time of going to press Lord Coe and LOCOG were not available for comment. Earlier the latter told TTJ that, as a private company, it was free to decide its own procurement policy.