The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are making big efforts to be more eco-friendly than the previous Olympics season. The goal is to make the football competition at the 2024 Olympics more sustainable and help set a new standard for major sporting events.
Some of the eco-friendly initiatives in football at the Paris Olympics 2024 include:
‘Prevention is better than cure’ approach
During the bidding phase, Paris 2024 committed to reducing the carbon impact of the games by 50% compared to previous editions. A thorough carbon budget was established, covering construction, energy, transport, and meals.
This makes it the first Olympic Games that follows the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, adopted in 2015. The event also took the initiative to assess its material footprint.
The organisers developed a detailed plan which maps out the needed resources for each venue. They want to minimise usage and effectively manage the equipment’s life cycle before, during, and after the games.
Paris 2024 is also using 100% renewable energy for the games and reducing the reliance on diesel generators. Most generators will be fueled by biofuel or batteries. All venues will be linked to the power grid to avoid temporary energy solutions, impressing even Olympics betting fans.
The team also devised a unique approach to examine and lessen the games’ influence on biodiversity. This helped create more eco-friendly temporary venues.
Reusing and renting resources after the games
Paris 2024’s circular economy strategy is founded on three key concepts: games with fewer resources, optimised resource usage, and the guaranteed second life of resources after the games.
Around 95% of the venues at the Paris 2024 Olympics are pre-existing or temporary venues. The rest have been developed with less carbon emissions.
The Aquatics Centre, one of the venues, will still be useful even after the event. Another factor that amazes people including bettors at Olympics betting sites is the 4,680sqm of solar panels placed on the Centre’s roof that will provide most of its power needs. The Centre’s seats are also made from recycled plastic trash.
Paris 2024 imposed a limited private use and pushed for shared use of tents, chairs, computers, and sports gear. With this method, the number of furniture required for the games has lessened from 800,000 to 600,000. Three-quarters of the two million pieces of sports gear will be rented or donated by sports federations, including computers, printers, and screens.
Reduced travel emissions
With more than 400 km of new bike lanes, the Paris 2024 organisers made sure that the games can maximise the city’s vast public transport system. To keep athletes’ travel time to a minimum, the Olympic Village is located within 10 km away from more than 80% of the venues.
Every location is also reachable through public transport. Toyota, the official car company of the Olympics, will provide electric, hybrid, and hydrogen-powered vehicles for the athletes and staff.
Regeneration strategies
The French government wants to use the Paris Olympics to improve people’s lives in the long term. For instance, the Aquatics Centre will serve as a multi-sports centre for the public after the games.
It will include swimming pools, climbing walls, exercise centres, and venues for individual and team sports like football. After the games, the Olympic Village will become a residential and commercial district, housing 6,000 people and offering jobs for another 6,000.
Around 25% of the residential area will be assigned to public housing. Government agencies will manage the rental of another third of the property as affordable housing, which will be available to low-income workers and students.
Restaurants, shops, and recreation places will also be added to bring life back to the area and boost the employment rate. Underground energy lines and the revival of the Canal Saint-Denis, which runs beside the Olympic Village, will further enhance the standard of living in the area.
The Paris Olympics is also helping clean up the Seine River. A huge budget garnered from the games will go towards pollution removal so that everyone in Paris can enjoy the river by 2025.
More local, less plastic
Around 13 million eco-friendly meals will be provided during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. These meals are said to emit half the carbon emissions of the average French meal by:
- Reducing the use of single-use plastics in the catering industry. Viewers are also allowed to bring their reusable bottles as there will be free water fountains in all venues.
- Increasing the number of plant-based options and proportion for everyone, including the personnel and viewers.
- Reducing food waste by improved quantity estimation, redistribution, composting, or transformation of all uneaten food.
- Using products sourced from local farms, with 80% of the components coming from farms within 250km of the venue.
Why do eco-friendly choices matter for the climate?
Eco-friendly choices are crucial for the climate for the following reasons:
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions → Everyday activities like driving, power usage, and consumption of certain products contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Making eco-friendly choices, such as reducing energy usage and buying sustainable products, helps lower these emissions and mitigate climate change.
- Preserving natural resources → Eco-friendly practices use resources more efficiently and avoid wasteful consumption. This helps conserve finite natural resources like fossil fuels, water, and raw materials.
- Setting an example → The Paris Olympics’ eco-friendly actions will inspire and encourage others to make greener choices. This ‘ripple effect’ helps spread eco-friendly behaviour throughout communities.
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