Scale back, reuse, accountability.
The Paris 2024 Olympics is almost over, and apart from being a spectacular and thrilling Summer time Video games up to now, France’s capital has efficiently hosted probably the most sustainable Olympics to this point. It’s achieved this objective largely by lowering its carbon footprint, together with decreasing using assets, reusing present infrastructure, and powering all venues with renewable vitality.
Almost all venues are present or non permanent.
To start out, an enormous contributor to creating Paris 2024 probably the most sustainable Olympics, is the truth that 95% of the venues getting used for the occasion both beforehand existed or are non permanent services. As an illustration, the principle athletics stadium is the pre-existing Stade de France.
As for these services that needed to be constructed, such because the Aquatics Heart and the Olympic Village, they have been developed utilizing an environmental technique that included low-carbon constructing supplies. As an illustration, the Aquatics Centre is a picket construction that incorporates a large photo voltaic array on its roof. What’s extra, the close to 11,000 seats that function the venue’s non permanent stands have been constituted of recycled supplies.
Georgina Grenon, #Paris2024 Director for Environmental Excellence speaks about how these Video games are proving that it’s attainable to supply and showcase concrete options to safe local weather ambitions. pic.twitter.com/EKs0YWihht
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) August 6, 2024
Sustainable Olympics requires renewables.
Along with reusing infrastructure and constructing eco-conscious services, utilizing renewable vitality to energy all venues has helped Paris to realize its impressively sustainable Olympics. Utilizing each renewable energy and retractable electrical terminals, it’s anticipated that when all is claimed and completed, this clear vitality strategy will save about 13,000 tons of carbon emissions by merely lowering diesel generator use. Among the many renewable vitality sources used embody on-site photo voltaic and geothermal technology.
Moreover, past extending its Métro, and including extra biking lanes, 500 Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are getting used to supply Olympic athletes (and shortly Paralympic athletes) with zero-emission transportation.
A full lifecycle of assets.
One other notable manner that Paris 2024 has outshined earlier Olympics when it comes to its sustainability is its prioritization of renting and sharing over shopping for. Moreover, focus has been positioned on controlling the complete lifecycle of assets, previous to, throughout, and after the Summer time Video games, with a second life for 90% of apparatus and items secured.
It will likely be fascinating to see how the sustainable Olympics pattern continues within the upcoming Video games in Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy (2026 Winter Video games) and Los Angeles, United State (2028 Summer time Video games), and in the event that they’ll be simply nearly as good or – hopefully – even higher.
