Sustainable Olympic Games?
Not yet. But maybe one day.
Paris 2024 was the most sustainable Olympic Games of all time. I mean, how could it not be? They had a pianist with a cape of recycled VHS tape!
I rolled my eyes when I heard it. “Who cares!” I thought. The whole thing was so gimmicky.
But was it? Here’s what I discovered about sustainability at Paris 2024:
What they planned to achieve
What they actually achieved
What they could have achieved
Plus a few of my craziest ideas for making the Olympics truly sustainable.
Paris 2024 – the most sustainable Olympic Games ever?
The French organisers made a big deal about their promise to halve emissions compared to London 2012. That said, London and Rio didn’t even have goals. So we must applaud this year’s organisers. No one has ever made sustainability a priority at a sporting event this big.
But how well did the organisers do? If you want to run a sustainable Olympic Games, you’ve got to get 3 things right: infrastructure, operations and travel.
Infrastructure
Three-quarters of equipment was rented or loaned from clubs. The same for electronic equipment. And all this equipment is now available for re-use by the clubs after the Games.
Okay, that’s pretty good. But it gets better: a whopping 95% of venues were pre-existing or temporary. The aquatics centre was new, but solar-powered and constructed from wood and recycled plastic. Also, it was built in an area of Paris where most kids don’t know how to swim. This building now serves that community.
It’s the same with the Olympic Village. It was built in Seine-Saint-Denis, one of the poorest parts of Paris. The Village now provides workplaces for 6,000 people and apartments for an additional 6,000, with a quarter of these social housing. Restaurants, shops and leisure centres that sprung up around the Village are now rejuvenating an area where unemployment stood at over 20%. Compare that with what’s happened to the infrastructure for the Qatar World Cup.
I make that two-nil to Paris.
Operations
Here again, the French organisers were busy. All venues were powered by renewable energy. The Olympic Village itself was a low-carbon design.
A whopping 13 million meals were served at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Yet the organisers managed to produce these meals for less than half the carbon emissions of the average French meal. Plant-based ingredients in these meals also doubled, while 80% of ingredients were sourced locally.
What about travelling fans?
It’s great the organisers wanted to cut emissions. It’s great they aimed for a sustainable Olympic Games. It’s great they talked it up. But they forgot the biggest source of pollution: travel.
That’s what a French environmental non-profit called The Shifters reckon anyway. They worked out that travel accounted for 34% of all emissions from the Paris Olympic Games. (Infrastructure and operations accounted for 33% each.)
So yes, the organisers were fired up to make infrastructure and operations more sustainable. But they did jack all about travel, blowing their travel emissions budget by 146%. And by blowing their travel budget, they broke their promise to cut emissions by half. (They did cut them by around 35%. So not bad.)
The big problem was fans from outside Europe, who emitted 8 times more than fans within Europe. Long-haul flights were their only option, basically. And long-haul flights stink.
None of which changes the basic fact: Paris 2024 was the most sustainable Olympic Games of all time.
How to make the Olympics more sustainable?
Well, we’re going to have to do something about travel. Unfortunately, travel’s the hard part to fix.
With infrastructure, you’re not asking people to accept change: the stadiums still look like stadiums. With operations, you’re asking people to make small changes. Eat more plant-based ingredients. Use less air conditioning. (And even then, athletes complained.) But with travel, we’re talking BIG CHANGES. Yet I can’t see how to make the Olympics more sustainable if we don’t go drastic.
With that massive caveat hanging over us, let’s dive into some solutions.
Ban long-distance travel
Televise only: Restrict attendance to athletes, their coaches and support staff, their families, journalists, and dignitaries. Everyone else – and that’s you and me – watches from home.
In-country fans only: Same as “televise only”, but fans from the host country can attend as well. (At least we’d have more of an atmos.)
International fan zones: The biggest emitters were fans from outside Europe. The simplest solution is to stop these flights. Instead, create fan zones around the world that are easy to reach without long-haul flights. That way, fans can gather and soak up the Olympic “experience” without burning the planet by travelling halfway around the globe.
(FYI, I came up with this idea before I read the analysis by The Shifters. Just saying.) 😉
Offset long-distance travel
Fewer sports: Cut out disciplines to reduce the volume of athletes, fans and infrastructure. You could start with sports that have bigger competitions than the Olympics. Football, rugby, tennis, golf – these millionaires don’t care about the Olympics. They don’t stay in the Olympic village or mingle with the other athletes. Out ye go!
No infrastructure: Offset travel emissions by cutting out the infrastructure completely. Have the athletes compete on grass, in lakes and rivers, on the beach and sand. Picture an ancient-Greece-style Olympics.
Permanent host nation: Build and maintain the venues and infrastructure in one permanent location. There would be no need to build new infrastructure every 4 years. No need for athletes, coaches and support staff to travel. No need to worry about the unfair advantage some athletes have, since all athletes would train in the same facilities. I’m thinking somewhere in Africa, for a change. Or Greece, for the history.
It’s all about mindset
Okay, so some of these solutions are drastic. You might be thinking, what about the atmosphere in the stadiums? What about our freedom to travel?
The atmosphere ratchets up the excitement. I won’t deny it. As for “freedom”, that depends. Does your freedom trump someone else’s right to clean air or to a home that’s not under water?
Besides, I’ve attended big sports events. You don’t see much. Most of the time, you’re glued to your phone trying to make out what the referee is saying. Or you’re craning your neck to see the big screen for replays of the bits you missed because someone’s head was blocking your view.
Here’s the thing: you can work on technology, construction materials and catering all you want. But when several 100,000 people make a return trip for a few days of entertainment, how can that ever be sustainable?
News from the frontlines of sustainability
The news from the front is that … the frontline has moved. We’re in Ireland for a year. Don’t worry – the fight for a more sustainable world goes on.
Here’s me and my son enjoying a post-walk treat.
It is a Monday moring and I am busy so when I read a newsleetter from begining to end, it means it grabbed my intention and did so until the end! Paris did so well and your suggestions are solid and possible to effect a massive change.
Thank you Raymond!