Alibaba: How can Future Olympics be More Sustainable?

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Alibaba Cloud Energy Expert deployed at Paris 2024
Alibaba Cloud is deploying Energy Expert solutions at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to provide real-time energy use data and make future Games more sustaina

More than 15 million spectators are expected to attend the Paris 2024 Olympic Games for the country’s first time hosting in 100 years. 

Each of these spectators will travel, many internationally, to see the next Olympians compete for glory. 

The Paris 2024 Organising Committee and International Olympic Committee (IOC) have been working since 2017 to limit the Games’ environmental impact, setting up free public transport for spectators and using existing venues to prevent construction emissions where possible.

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In Paris, 100% of the population live within a kilometre of a transit station, making it relatively easy to use existing transport systems for the 2024 Games. 

In comparison, the next Games will be held in Los Angeles, California where just 11% of people live within a kilometre of a transit stop. 

Alibaba Cloud will deploy its Energy Expert sustainability solution at this year’s Games to collect data, providing forecasts and recommendations to Los Angeles and other future host cities. 

William Xiong, Vice President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence and General Manager for International Industry Solutions, says: “Energy Expert will further prove its value in the most high-profile and challenging arena of all the fast-paced and highly competitive world of international sports. 

William Xiong, Vice President of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence and General Manager for International Industry Solutions

“The insights Energy Expert delivers will form part of the solution to assist the IOC and future Games to be more sustainable.”

Alibaba Cloud

Alibaba Group is a Chinese multinational technology company founded in 1999.

In 2009 the company launched Alibaba Cloud, a cloud computing service platform that has become the largest high-end cloud computing company in China. 

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Alibaba Cloud offers services including elastic computing and desktop services, object storage service and Energy Expert.

Eddie Wu, CEO of Alibaba Group, says sustainability initiatives “have shaped the essence of Alibaba and are as equally important to Alibaba as the creation of business value. 

Eddie Wu, CEO of Alibaba Group

“The core of our ESG efforts is focused on how to be a better company.”

Alibaba Cloud Energy Expert

Energy Expert is a data driven tool used to help companies move towards carbon neutrality.

The software acts as a ‘carbon management assistant’, quantifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals, producing reports for emissions standards, and providing certifications. 

Energy Expert is powered by AI to compile data from across supply chains and identify potential energy savings from 13 types of metering device. 

Alibaba Cloud Energy Expert example dashboard

The solution was used for Olympic eSports Week through a customised app allowing fan engagement and identifying carbon reductions in the reuse of carpets and using digital signage to replace printing. 

Energy Expert at the Paris 2024 Olympics

Deploying Energy Expert at the Paris 2024 Games will enable more accurate analysis of power consumption at the games to better inform future host cities. 

The systems will be applied to all 35 competition venues to consolidate all data from both the Olympic and Paralympic Games to one dashboard, making it easy to understand. 

As part of the programme, 100 smart electricity metres are installed to gather comprehensive datasets and provide real-time information.

As well as power usage, the platform will consolidate venue capacity, weather conditions and competition-related information.

llario Corna, Chief Information and Technology Officer at the IOC, says: "Sustainability is one of the three pillars of Olympic Agenda 2020+5 alongside credibility and youth.

llario Corna, Chief Information and Technology Officer at the IOC

“With Energy Expert, we can now forecast our energy related impacts well into the future and accurately measure our progress.

“Electricity consumption is a large contributor to the Olympic Games’ carbon emissions. 

“The data-driven insight produced by Energy Expert will help us learn from each Games edition, and apply that knowledge intelligently to make future events even more energy efficient.”

As well as data from Paris 2024, Energy Expert will analyse data from previous Summer and Winter Olympics.

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