ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses third-party assurance of sustainability reporting in the case of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic. It explores the limitations of reporting around the sustainability of the Games that also shaped the boundaries of sustainability assurance. The chapter illustrates the complexity of first understanding and then assuring sustainability in the particular context. The chapter details CSL publications to illustrate what assurance frameworks were used, which aspects of sustainability the commission considered and ultimately, the difference the commission thought it made and what its independent evaluators thought of its impact. It argues that phronetic research has a place in the evaluation of sustainability reporting of the Games, which use many common resources like taxpayers' money, water and wood. As someone involved in the third-party assurance framework for the event, and as an academic with a research interest in the topic of mega-sport event management, what purposes assurance serves, and how it links to measurements of organizational effectiveness.
