Paris 2024: More sustainable Games
As the first Olympic Games edition to be fully aligned with Olympic Agenda 2020, Paris 2024 was be more sustainable than its predecessors, for a whole host of reasons.
As early as the candidature phase, the organisers pledged to cut carbon emissions by half compared to London 2012 and Rio 2016 and align with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change – a goal they sought to achieve by understanding how they could do more with less, and for longer. This meant mapping out all the resources needed to stage the Games, right down to the last tennis ball, all with the aim of controlling their life cycle before, during, and after the Games, and reducing the Games’ material footprint.
Take the two million pieces of sports equipment used at Paris 2024, 75 per cent of which were rented or loaned out by sports federations. Three-quarters of the screens, computers, and printers used at the Games were also rented, reflecting the circular-economy strategy employed by the organisers. By adhering to a core principle of using fewer resources and utilising them better, they cut the estimated number of furniture items needed at the Games from 800,000 to 600,000, while ensuring their second life after athletes and spectators had gone home.
Innovative energy solutions were another focal point for the organisers. Paris 2024 was powered entirely by renewable energy, with all venues connected to the national electric grid. The new grid connections remained after the Games, helping reduce the footprint of future events hosted by these venues and becoming an important part of the Paris 2024 legacy. Where they were required, generators were powered by biofuel, hydrogen, or batteries.
Some 95 per cent of the Games’ 35 competition venues were pre-existing or temporary, the latter designed in such a way as to reduce their impact on biodiversity. The Aquatics Centre, one of only two new venues, was built using low-carbon construction methods. Largely energy-self-sufficient thanks to the 4,680m² of solar panels on its roof, the venue boasted seats made from recycled local plastic waste, while wood was used widely in its construction to reduce emissions.
The Aquatics Centre will serve local residents long after the Games. It was strategically placed in an area which lacked sporting infrastructure and where half of 11-year-olds did not know how to swim. The interests of the people of the Seine-Saint-Denis district were also at the heart of regeneration initiatives such as the redevelopment of the Canal Saint-Denis and the construction of a noise barrier to the south of the A86 motorway.
Also located in the heart of Seine-Saint-Denis, the Olympic Village provided workplaces for 6,000 people and apartments for an additional 6,000 after the Games, with a quarter reserved for public housing. Restaurants, shops, and leisure centres sprouted up around them, helping to rejuvenate an area where unemployment stood at over 20 per cent.
The Games also served as an accelerator to clean the River Seine, with significant investment allocated for pollution remediation – with the aim of enabling all Parisians to enjoy the river from 2025 onwards. The initiative was part of the city's future climate-resilience planning.
The French capital is famed for its food, another area where Paris 2024 went all in on sustainability. The 13 million meals served at the Olympic and Paralympic Games produced less than half the carbon emissions of the average French meal: 1kg compared to 2.3kg.
The plant-based ingredients in these meals were doubled, while 80 per cent of ingredients were sourced from local agriculture, a quarter of them within 250km of the respective venues.
Much like the tennis balls mentioned above, better estimates were made of the volume of ingredients needed to make these meals, helping to cut food waste. Any unconsumed food was redistributed, composted, or transformed. Single-use plastic was reduced by half at Paris 2024. Worldwide Olympic Partner Coca-Cola installed 700 water and soft drink fountains across all Paris 2024 sites, and the organisers installed free drinking water points. Spectators were allowed to enter all venues with their own reusable bottles, a notable exception to existing French regulations. All catering equipment and infrastructure were reused after the Games.
Sustainability was also a watchword when it came to transport at Paris 2024. Visitors to the city found more than 400km of new bike lanes, more than 80 per cent of Olympic venues situated within 10km of the Olympic Village, and all venues served by public transport, with operators in the Paris region expanding standard bus, metro and train services by 15 per cent.
As for the Paris 2024 vehicle fleet, this had been trimmed by 40 per cent compared to previous Games, with electric, hybrid and hydrogen-powered vehicles supplied by Worldwide Olympic Partner Toyota being laid on to ferry athletes and other accreditees to and from their destinations.
At Paris 2024, all roads led to sustainability.