With 800 sporting events, 15,000 athletes, 45,000 volunteers and 13 million meals, can the world’s biggest sporting event truly be eco-friendly? Read on to find out about the French capital’s plans to make Paris 2024 the greenest Olympics ever, and how these plans played out.
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3.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide – that is the average amount of emissions generated by previous summer Olympics, equal to the emissions generated from 800,000 cars in a year! Paris 2024 set a bold goal: cut these emissions by half.
Reusing Venues
In the past, cities often built new, huge venues to host different sports competition. Unfortunately, these buildings are often abandoned after the event, like the Maracana Stadium built for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games.
Paris 2024 took a different approach. To reduce waste and save cost, they used mostly existing venues such as the Stade de France, a stadium built for the 1998 football World Cup. Only two buildings were constructed specifically for the Olympics, including the Olympic Village, where the athletes stay, and the Aquatics Center for swimming and diving events.
Clean Energy
The Paris games were powered entirely with renewable energy from six wind farms and two solar farms. Other creative energy solutions were used too, such as keeping the athletes’ homes at the Olympic Village cool by pumping river water through pipes under the floorboards. At first, the organizers thought this could keep the village free of air-conditioning. However, as France struggled with a heatwave last month, 2,500 temporary mobile cooling units were later provided to keep athletes comfortable.
Recycling
From the medals to the stadium seats, recycled materials were used whenever possible. You may have heard about the famous Olympic beds, made from recycled cardboard! Other eco-furniture included mattresses made from recycled fishing nets, coffee tables made from recycled badminton shuttlecocks, and chairs made from recycled bottle caps – a clever way to reduce waste and give life to old stuff.
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Paris built 11,000 stadium seats from recycled materials.
Unfortunately, some eco-furniture did not meet the needs of athletes. Some said the cardboard beds were hard and uncomfortable. How can we balance comfort and sustainability? This is a challenge that organizers of future Olympics will have to solve.
Check this out next: A Kid-Friendly Guide to Recycling
Going Plant-Based
Paris 2024 promised to halve the carbon footprint of the average meal at the Olympics. To do so, they got most ingredients from local sources, prepared more plant-based meals for spectators, and reduced food waste through food planning and donating leftovers.
The organizers faced some challenges along the way, as some athletes reported that there was not enough food, specifically meat and eggs. Since then, caterers had to adjust their plans to provide more of these foods.
Green Transport
With 15 million visitors expected for the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, one big challenge was finding ways to cut down on transportation emissions. To deal with this, the organizers made sure there were many low-carbon ways for people to get to the different venues. They built new cycling paths and upgraded public transport options like Metro trains and buses.
The Future of the Games
So, did Paris 2024 achieve their goal to become the greenest Olympic games in history?
While the organizers made clear efforts toward sustainability, some plans worked better than others. But perhaps the answer to the question is not as important as we think. What is more valuable may be the lessons we learn from it – both the challenges faced and the successes achieved.
The future of the Olympic Games will depend on how sustainable they can become.
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons.
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