Manchester United won the treble this year. This happened. You might not have noticed it on the pitch, where the grand trophy total was zero, but they did.

And it's the kind of performance that would have David May pumping his hands in glee: in the run up to hosting some of the Olympic football games, the club has been awarded with its second international standard in environmental management this year, to add to the table-topping performance in the government's organisational league last season.

As Business Green reports, the newly launched ISO20121 standard that covers sustainability measures in major event arenas was awarded to Manchester United for their Old Trafford facility.

The stadium also earned the club top spot in the government's Energy Efficiency Performance League Table, which ranks 2,000 CRC-registered organisations according to their energy management practice.

And the club is one of just a handful who maintain Carbon Trust Standards, securing ISO14001 environmental certification earlier this year.

"Sustainability is something about which we care passionately and it's a great achievement to be setting standards in the events sector," said chief operating officer Michael Bolingbroke.

"Everyone at the club worked incredibly hard to ensure that this certification was achieved and we look forward to continuing our efforts in this field."

As the efforts of the Old Trafford team prove, no commercial building is too large to start integrating sustainability solutions such as LED lighting in a bid to cut down its imprint on the environment.

Which is exactly what has been going on in the run up to the Olympics. As the Responding to Climate Change group noted this week, a fundamental element of the stadium design surrounding the Olympic Park venue and the south London Velodrome concerned itself with sustainable lighting and climate control solutions.

"With a large amount of the Games’ total carbon emissions coming from the building and operation of the arenas, both in London and across the UK, [such venues] have the potential to make or break Games’ sustainability strategy," the group said.