A headquarters that reflects our ambitions
Since the beginning of 2021, the Pulse building in Saint-Denis has formed the nerve centre for Paris 2024 teams. The headquarters reflects our ambitions and identity and – like many symbolic Games events, the Athletes’ Village, and the Media Village – is testimony to Seine‑Saint-Denis’ youthful energy, which inspire our Games. For the past four years, this innovative building (which meets the highest climate and environmental standards) has been home to the competitive spirit, operations and ideas of the teams organising the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Each stage of the headquarters’ life cycle was designed with sustainability and local reach in mind – including its construction, layout, how it will be run and what will become of it after the Games. Our partners work alongside us to contribute to this responsible and sustainable approach, providing expertise and solutions to ensure the building showcases our shared ambitions.
A responsible building
Since quality of life at work goes hand in hand with sustainability, Paris 2024 is keen to take advantage of the opportunity the Games bring to innovate and is adopting a principle of sobriety by moving into an existing low-carbon building with good environmental credentials. Our partners work alongside us to contribute to this responsible and sustainable approach, providing expertise and solutions to ensure the building showcases our shared ambitions.
A responsible operation
Paris 2024’s headquarters contributes to the circular economy, as it strives to achieve zero food waste in its canteen; stock will be optimised, surplus food will be sold on or given to charities and organic waste will be collected and sent to anaerobic digestion plants. Single-use plastic cutlery, plates, cups, packaging and bottles are not used in the canteen or elsewhere in the building. State‑of‑the‑art automatic bottle filling stations are available for all employees to fill up their own aluminium bottle provided by Coca-Cola. Furthermore, many of the furnishings have been given a second lease of life, including the carpets, 20,445 sq m of access flooring and 7,500 sq m of fully recycled textile soundproofing material. Additionally, all of the furniture follows eco-design principles and will be reused or donated following the Games.
Employees working at headquarters are encouraged to travel on environmentally friendly transport: they can take advantage of the buy-a-bike scheme and have access to secure bike storage facilities, electric vehicle charging points and ten public transport lines around the headquarters.
A welcoming, inclusive home
Paris 2024’s headquarters is fully accessible to people with reduced mobility and the canteen staff have received training on how to assist people with disabilities. Additionally, all service providers are encouraged to follow inclusive recruitment practices to enable people with disabilities to make up 25 per cent of technical maintenance staff and people on occupational integration schemes to form more than two thirds of employees responsible for the upkeep of the headquarters (cleaning, maintenance, gardening, etc.). Furthermore, Paris 2024 intends to contract 60 per cent of service providers from the Social and Solidarity Economy and 40 per cent from Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
A small carbon footprint
Pulse has been awarded the BBCA low-carbon building label and its structure consists of 6,000 m3 of a mixture of wood and concrete materials. The building’s canteen is committed to reducing the impact of the meals it serves; with seasonal ingredients sourced locally where possible, at least 80 per cent fresh produce, 20 per cent local produce (sourced within a 200 km radius) and one vegetarian option each day, the canteen enables everyone to reduce the impact of what they eat on the climate and environment.
The headquarters’ electricity supply is guaranteed to be 100 per cent green and generated in France (with EDF innovating to provide biogas and traceable green electricity) and 300 sq m of the building’s roof is covered in solar panels. The construction of the building has already been fully offset by supporting a project that was awarded a low-carbon label by the French Ministry for the Ecological Transition. Paris 2024 is committed to offsetting all carbon emissions related to Pulse operations.
A locally-rooted neighbour
Paris 2024 encourages local businesses to tender for its contracts by offering a range of initiatives to make it easier for them – such as organising meetups in Seine-Saint-Denis and setting up the SSE 2024 platform. As a result, a third of the companies working at the headquarters (reception, maintenance, gardening, reprography, etc.) are based in Seine-Saint-Denis. To take things up a notch, Paris 2024 encourages its service providers to hire locally so that Pulse and the people bringing it to life truly represent the local area.
© BFV architectes-Icade-Paris 2024
