London's Olympic Park Energy Centre, flagship of its sustainability claims, is being built by a company described as "one of the worst and most violent companies in Brazil in terms of its social and environmental record". It will form part of a profitable portfolio of energy projects including massive dams in the Amazon rainforest that are being widely condemned for their ecological damage and social injustice.

French multinational GDF Suez is contracted to construct and run the Energy Centres in the London Olympic Park and the adjacent Stratford City, plus the associated service infrastructure. These CCHP (combined cooling heating and power) units have all capital and running costs met by GDF Suez - in exchange for a 40 year sole concession to supply these services in the area, essentially creating a privatised utility monopoly within the Olympic Park and Stratford City with a guaranteed stream of profits going to the operators.

In effect the Olympic Park is being mortgaged to GDF Suez and its shareholders, with no control over the use of the profits from the massive future revenue from utility bills. While it may be true that co-generating heat, cooling and power is more efficient, this will simply translate into increased profit for the operator.

If as a future resident of the post-2012 paradise in the making you care about the fate of the rain forests and their inhabitants and don't like your utility suppliers ethics - or indeed their prices - you'll have no choice but to move elsewhere.

GDF Suez' major involvement in the Madeira River Jirau Dam hydroelectric scheme in Brazil earned it a nomination for the 2010 Public Eye Awards , organised by Greenpeace and others to publicise the most environmentally destructive corporate practices. The Jirau Dam project is accused of displacing thousands of indigenous residents, unauthorised deforestation, causing pollution, violation of labour laws and fomenting conflict through political manipulation. GDF Suez and its partner companies in the ESBR construction consortium have been fined for for illegal deforestation, and are already co-defendants in civil action lawsuits in Brazil filed by the State and Federal Public Prosecutors' Office and non-governmental organizations.

A letter of appeal for corporate responsibility was sent in January this year to GDF Suez' president by a coalition of organisations from Brazil, France, the USA and Peru. The letter states "GDF Suez and its affiliates have displayed a lack of due diligence in the planning and construction phases of the Jirau dam, along with a disregard for human rights and environmental protection, for which the company is both legally and ethically accountable."

GDF Suez is also bidding for the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu river, an even larger hydroelectric project threatening ecological disaster in pursuit of economic growth. It is attracting ferocious international and indigenous opposition and the cause is being championed by film director James Cameron. An estimated 20,000 people will be displaced and 500 square kilometers of forest submerged.

When the Energy Centre deal was announced in 2008, ODA Chief Executive David Higgins claimed "Sustainability runs right through this project and our energy centre plans will ensure the Games deliver the lasting legacy of a sustainable energy supply for this part of east London".

The unpalatable reality shows what an abused and meaningless term 'sustainable' has become. Neither is it a 'legacy' being 'delivered' by the Games, but a profitable business being taken full advantage of by a ruthless corporation. It is debatable whether a primarily gas-powered system can be termed 'sustainable', but this is hardly a term that can be truthfully applied to an installation linked so closely to potentially catastrophic environmental damage.

The scale of the destruction in Brazil and London may differ, but the following comment from Océlio Munhoz, a local leader of the Movement of Peoples Affected by Dams, shows the parallel between the impact of London's Olympics and that of the Jirau Dam:

"GDF Suez disregards our communities just as it disrespects the river. Our lives are being destroyed by a development model that treats the river and land like merchandise."