Less meat on menus and fewer new venues: how the Olympics is trying to go green

No more diesel generators to power live broadcasts, less meat on the athletes’ menus, and very little construction of new venues — the organisers of the Paris Olympics Games want to prove that the world’s biggest sporting event can go green.  

It will be a test not just of the French capital’s eco-credentials, but also the International Olympic Committee’s ambition to host sustainable mega-events in an era of climate change. For the Games, which start on July 26, Paris has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by half compared with the levels at London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

But academics and activists have called for an even bigger overhaul of the Olympics amid big questions about whether such large-scale events can ever be truly green given the air travel and construction they require. The pressure comes as the IOC faces issues such as a looming reduction in the number of countries that can host the winter Games as temperatures rise.

Thomas Bach, IOC president, said climate change was “one of the greatest threats to the future of sport”. He said: “Climate change increasingly impacts where, when and how sport can be played. It is already affecting athlete performance and spectator experience.”

Marie Sallois, the IOC’s director of corporate and sustainable development, said Paris would be the test case for the IOC’s new sustainability strategy. “Paris is the first edition to demonstrate this ambition,” she said.

Walker Ross, a lecturer in sports management at Edinburgh university, said the Games could help spread the word about the importance of tackling climate change. “The Olympics are an incredibly visible manifestation of not just sports but global culture. It’s beamed into homes all around the planet and we all pay attention,” he said. 

But he added the Olympics was also in “survival mode”, especially for the winter editions that are plagued by shrinking snowfall and unpredictable weather. Research carried out for the IOC said the number of viable hosts could be reduced to just 10 countries globally by 2040.

“It’s becoming more and more difficult to conceptualise hosting such a big event, especially when you can’t guarantee snow on the ground,” he said.

France had little competition when it bid earlier this year to host the winter Games in the Alps in 2030, an offer it made despite the fact that above-average temperature rises have diminished snowfall at lower altitudes.

More extreme weather events, including hotter temperatures at summer Games, will also put stress on both athletes and spectators. Last year was the hottest on record. 

Benja Faecks from non-profit Carbon Market Watch, said the French capital’s plans to cut emissions did not go far enough. “The Games as they are right now don’t make sense in the face of climate change,” she said.

For years, there has been criticism about the construction of buildings or facilities for the Games, with IOC research finding 15 per cent of venues built since 1896 were no longer in use.

Ross said a big problem the Olympics has faced is “gigantism”, with every host wanting its event to be a “little bigger, more grander”.

The Paris organisers say their aim is to put on a spectacular show, even as they engineer an event that consumes fewer materials and less energy.

The new athletes’ village, which will be converted into social housing for 12,000 people, was built largely with wood and so-called low-carbon cement, and features natural ventilation instead of air conditioning — all to ensure lower emissions per square metre than for traditional buildings.  

Unlike London, which built six new venues, Paris built only one, a new aquatics centre in the low-income area of Saint-Denis that will be converted later to a community pool — as well as a basketball venue that the French said was planned anyway. Instead, eight temporary venues are now being built near historical monuments such as the Eiffel Tower. 

Georgina Grenon, head of sustainability for Paris 2024, said organisers had planned for the “circularity” of temporary venues and equipment. “Much has been rented, such as the seats and stands, and a second life has been secured for 90 per cent of the equipment,” she said, citing how mattresses from the athletes’ village would be donated to the army.

As one of the only new venues, the aquatics centre in Saint-Denis was inaugurated earlier this year

The venue has a capacity of 5,500, and after the Games the pool will be used by the community

Solar panels on the centre’s roof provide 20% of the venue’s electricity, and its footprint of 5,000 sq metres makes it the largest urban solar farm in France

Half of the water in the pool comes from reclaimed sources and 40% is recycled after use – the maximum allowed under French law

Yet some bad habits remain: Paris is not likely to meet its goal of cutting consumption of single-use plastics. An exclusive contract with Coca-Cola to provide beverages has been given a veneer of sustainability with reusable cups and fountains, but will still rely heavily on plastic bottles.

Another challenge is the emissions generated by spectators travelling to the event. Spectators at the upcoming games in Los Angeles and Brisbane will be even more reliant on air travel compared with Paris, where some European teams have committed to travel by train.

David Gogishvili, a researcher at the University of Lausanne who has studied Olympic emissions, said he did not think it was possible to bring together 12,000 athletes and millions of spectators in “one place and for that to happen in a green way.”

With the Olympics under such pressure, there are growing calls for a rethink of the event. “The only way to achieve a truly green sustainable Games is to reconsider how we host the Games,” said Ross.

A report from Carbon Market Watch and Éclaircies, another climate-focused non-profit group, proposed spreading the Olympics across the world, turning “one event into multiple sub-events” and prioritising local spectators. The authors argued this was already happening at a smaller level, with Paris 2024’s surfing events taking place in Tahiti, French Polynesia, and sailing in Marseille. 

“The amount of new-build infrastructure needed would decrease since no single city would be asked to provide all of the necessary infrastructure for all of the Olympic sports,” the report said.

But Sallois pushed back against this notion, arguing that “decentralising the Games would undermine [its] unifying power”.

“The Olympic Games . . . come with a footprint, but while it has historically been significant, we are reducing it drastically.”

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Los Angeles, which will host the event for the third time in 2028, has pledged to focus on “radical reuse”, with no new permanent venues built. In a city where driving dominates travel, organisers say they will help improve public transport and get people “out of their cars”.

Brisbane, too, said it was “committed to delivering a more sustainable Games” in 2032.

Sallois said getting to net zero emissions was not “an easy journey, but we are doing it very systematically”.

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