Sustainable Spirit: The Paris Olympics' Green Legacy

The 2024 Paris Olympics have pledged to being the most sustainable Olympics in history, targeting a 50% reduction in carbon emissions compared to the average of the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics. We’ve already seen the exhibition of the Opening Ceremonies making these Games more united and more inclusive than any others in the past. What I’m most impressed with is the dedication of Paris and their efforts in being more responsible and more sustainable. While there is an endless list of all the areas they tried to cover, and trust me, there were a lot, we wanted to applaud and highlight the areas that we found most successful, thoughtful and intentional from the summer Olympics that the events industry can model and draw inspiration from.

1. Limiting New Builds and Reinventing the Existing

One of the most impactful choices from the organizers of the Paris Olympics is limiting the construction of new facilities for the games. 95% of venues are existing or temporary structures so that it doesn’t create a long effect impact upon the local area post event. The aquatics center and the athlete’s village are the only two new infrastructure projects built for Paris 2024.  

For those that are familiar, this is a huge shift!  Many Olympic host cities spend millions on building structures that are left eerily abandoned, demolished or are unrealistic to maintain after the events have taken place.  Nearly every Olympic hosting city has fallen victim to these overwhelming infrastructure investments and many of the buildings fall into disrepair and vandalism, creating eye sores and impacting the environment for the sake of a few heighten weeks of tourism.  For us, the greatest success of the Paris Olympics may be its commitment to utilizing the Sienne River and the city itself as the landscape for the Olympic welcoming ceremonies and using the preexisting Stade de France and Grand Palais as well as adding temporary scaffolding structures to support the other events.

Pro Tip: Reimagine the ordinary! Transform underutilized spaces like parking garages or loading docks into extraordinary event backdrops. Instead of starting from scratch, consider repurposing existing structures with a fresh coat of paint or a creative redesign. Let's create unforgettable shared experiences with less negative impact on the environment!

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2. Prioritizing Reducing Food Waste and Impact

Another stand-out effort this year from the Olympics has been implementing sustainable food practices.  They doubled the amount of plant-based food for spectators, to reduce the carbon footprint of meals by 50%. They’re sourcing 80% of ingredients within France to reduce transportation costs, with 25% sourced from within 150 miles of the venues.  Planners also implemented a policy that 100% of all unused food will be donated, composted or used to produce renewable gas. This is one of the most significant opportunities to impact a positive effect on climate change. Did you know that if food goes to the landfill and rots, it produces methane—a greenhouse gas even more potent than carbon dioxide? Diverting food away from the land fills is bound to make a huge impact.

Pro Tip: Feed the planet and your attendees.  Let's make a conscious choice! Swap out beef for plant-based options and embrace local, seasonal ingredients to reduce your event's carbon footprint. Partner with food service providers to compost leftovers and donate surplus food, creating a positive impact on the environment and local community. #AccessImpact

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3. Reduction of Single-Use Waste

The Olympics acknowledged that as a major public event, they’re bound to be a huge culprit of single use plastic.  But we have to start somewhere! The goal: produce less than half of the single-use plastics from the food and beverage outlets.  The Olympic village committed to using all reusable tableware with a plan for all catering equipment and infrastructure to be reused post event.  Installing over 700 free drinking water stations and soda fountains across all Paris 2024 sites, the spectators could bring reusable water bottles into the venues. Let’s be real, we all have a hydro flask we carry around for water and the Olympics is leading the way for big sporting facilities to follow suit for future events. Perhaps the most noticeable visual change of the games, instead of fresh cut flowers for each of the medalists, each winner receives a small box containing a scroll of the official commemorative poster for the 2024 Paris Olympics by Parisian illustrator Ugo Gattoni, reducing the waste of the fresh floral lifecycle and transport, and highlighting local art and culture – bonus!

Pro Tip: Let's make a lasting impression, literally! Ditch the disposable and opt for reusable tableware and glassware. Swap out single-use water bottles for refreshing water stations. Rethink giveaways – go digital or choose eco-friendly alternatives. Let's create events that leave a positive footprint.

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4. Reuse and Upcycle

I was quite impressed that the podiums for Olympic winners, plus 11,000 stadium chairs were manufactured in France from a 100% recycled plastic made from bottles and caps.  Within the Olympic Village, the athlete’s rooms are furnished with cardboard bed frames (quite a fun topic on social media and news outlets), coffee tables made from recycled badminton shuttlecocks, bean bags made from parachute fabric, chairs made from recycled bottle caps and sofas made from reclaimed street and festival barriers. And if these sustainable efforts were not enough, a creative reuse effort turned memento, the Olympic medals themselves are anchored in a reformed hexagon from the Eiffel Tower’s iron that duals as an upcycled keepsake for those forever memories.  A gold star to Philippe Starck for this incredibly brilliant idea! Talk about an unforgettable take away!

Pro Tip: Opt for event materials and decor crafted from recycled or upcycled sources. Reimagine table centerpieces with non-floral alternatives that can be repurposed or donated. Every element should reflect our commitment to sustainability and leaving a positive impact.  Doing this in small ways can make a huge impact!

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5. Reduced Energy Consumption

Paris 2024 integrated all of the Olympic venues into the public electricity grid, eliminating the need for diesel generators to provide power for all the facilities and allowing for EDF (French National Electric Company) to provide power from eight wind and solar production sites across France. Using a combination of solar panels, geo-exchange cooling systems and the natural shade from trees, EDF produced 100% renewable electricity during the Games.  Are you impressed?  I certainly am!

Expanded bike lanes, reduced parking spaces and increased parking fees were all measures to help promote public transportation, cycling or walking over driving for all participants and spectators. Also the Métro was extended to ensure that all competition venues were connected by public transport.

Perhaps our favorite, the most dramatic torch lighting ceremony of all time, the Paris Olympic Opening Ceremonies illuminated the most sustainable and innovative torch in the history of the Olympics.  Illuminated with 40 LED lights and water misters, before this year, the Olympic cauldron always been real fire fueled by fossil fuels.  I call that some major innovation (and it just happened to be rain-proof, which was helpful for the weather during Opening Ceremonies).

Pro Tip: Are there additional measures to keep guests onsite versus going off site with required transportation? Can creative methods of transport be used such as a public transportation challenge, walking distance locations or electric vehicles? Can electric or renewable power be the source for lighting, heating or cooling at your events?

The 2024 Paris Olympic planning team set forth a great deal of lofty goals for sustainability; fully acknowledged by the Director of Sustainability as “ambitious”, to specifically to cut the carbon emissions and footprint of the Olympic Games by 50% from previous events.  While the verdict on the overall official carbon impact of the events is still to be determined, as we approach the end of the Games, it’s hard to ignore the significance of the efforts put in place by the Paris Olympics.  The fact that they made it such a priority shows the world that they should do the same.  They gave us some great strategies that we can be inspired by, as we forge forward in the planning of our events.

In the words of Anne-Marie Bonneau, aka The Zero Waste Chef, “We don't need a handful of people doing zero-waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.”  So many times, we are scared to implement anything for the fear of being labeled as greenwashing or judged for not doing enough.  Today, maybe the lesson we take from the summer Olympics is that anything we do in the name of sustainability can be enough for impactful change as long as we do it all together.