Paris 2024 Olympics: Can Major Events be Sustainable?

The Paris 2024 Olympics this month will be all about those unforgettable moments of human achievement.

The fastest, the strongest, the bravest, the greatest: all of these titles will be bestowed on the athletes.

But who will talk about the cost?

Our planet is rather like the wobbly-legged marathon runner who is totally out of resources. So we just keep making it run further.

Olympics, football World Cups, international tours by musicians and comedians…never mind the atmosphere, feel the atmosphere.

It begs the question: is it possible to deliver carbon-neutral events?

In fairness to the Paris 2024 organising committee, sustainability is a highly visible subject.

It says: “Paris 2024, with the first Olympic Games fully aligned with Olympic Agenda 2020, promises to deliver spectacular Games that are more responsible, more sustainable and more inclusive.

“The organisers have laid out a cutting-edge plan to halve the Games-related carbon footprint compared to previous Games, with innovative solutions for energy, food, venues, transport and digital services.”

More of Paris later, though.

Decarbonising big events

When it comes to having a handle on the nitty-gritty of turning high-consumption, transport-heavy, crowded events into carbon-neutral showcases, Sam Booth is living it.

Sam is AEG Europe Director of Sustainability and his employer runs venues including:

• The O2 Arena, London
• Uber Arena, Berlin
• Barclays Arena, Hamburg
• Accor Arena, Paris
• Eventim Apollo
• Indigo at the O2
• Olympia London.

It also delivers events, including:

• American Express Presents BST Hyde Park, which has previously featured The Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam, Elton John and The Who
• Country 2 Country, Europe’s largest country music festival, at the O2
• The Eden Sessions: Live music at the Eden Project in England
• Uber One Presents All Points East at Victoria Park, London
• Rock en Seine, on the outskirts of Paris.

As if that’s not enough, AEG Europe owns Eisbären Berlin ice hockey franchise and Hammarby IF, a Stockholm, Sweden-based soccer team.

The business also delivers international tour management, live entertainment, event ticketing (via AXS Europe) and brand partnerships.

It’s a huge area of industry estate for Sam to plant a smaller carbon footprint onto.

Can big events be given a green heart?

Sam describes the waste produced at venues and festivals as “monstrous”, and says landing the AEG Europe job in January 2023 was a “great opportunity”.

He says: “The business is super varied, so there are so many opportunities for change and influence within it.

“We always say that the music industry itself is responsible for a very small percentage of global emissions, but the cultural weight and the influence that it has to engage people in these issues and actually change the paradigm a little bit and change the conversation is really quite fundamental.”

He adds: “You have to believe it's possible, because otherwise none of us gets out of bed in the morning, but a brutal answer is that it's not possible right now.”

What is being done at Paris 2024?

Paris targets a 50% reduction in carbon emissions compared to the average of London 2012 and Rio 2016.

A carbon budget was set which includes all Games planning and operations – from construction to energy and transport, catering and procurement.

Its emissions measures will even cover the indirect footprint of the Games, (Scope 3) such as spectator travel. It has calculated its material footprint by, venue by venue, creating a detailed map of required resources, aiming to minimise them and control their life cycle before, during and after the Games.

It includes everything from spectator seating to tents, beds, chairs, tables and even tennis balls.

A total of 95% of the Paris 2024 competition venues are pre-existing or temporary, with the rest built using low-carbon construction methods.

If it is possible, how can it be achieved?

All of which is impressive planning and mitigation – but it is not net zero. Is that actually a pipe dream?

Sam says: “The perfect sustainable event is quite some way away. But we can't really wait until a perfect sustainable event does exist to start tackling some of these issues.

“It's difficult to retrofit an old building and bring those up into the modern world.

“And until the whole transport ecosystem is decarbonised, there's no way that we could ever ourselves hit net zero.

“Having said that, our Scopes 1 and 2 are eminently decarbonisable. For example, what we do around our food menus.”

AEG Europe’s catering partner Levy UK has committed to net zero food menus by the end of 2025.

Sam adds: “With our festivals we're doing a lot of work around the food that is served. The big piece is where we try and accurately forecast what the carbon footprint of each menu item would be and then do education around that.”

Buildings present different – daunting - challenges. For example, retrofitting a stadium is both eye-wateringly expensive and complex.

Sam adds: “The O2 has a reliance on gas for its heating and a lot of its cooking and that is a project which we are starting to get into the reeds of.

“We're also trying to figure out what we can do with renewable energy on sites.”

Performer power

Returning to the theme of influencing, there are hopes that performing artists will use their platform to speak out about sustainability.

Sadly, says Sam, some of the performers are “just too scared” to do it.

However, a recent carbon-removed concert by The 1975 showed what is possible, Sam says, adding: “I think that those shows offer a platform to incoming artists.

“We understand that, if their favourite act is playing, fans are going to come, regardless of the sustainability credentials. Eventually, the issue should be the thing that swings people.”

A sporting chance

Dan Reading is Co-Founder of Sporting Giants, a consultancy that helps ‘create positive impact through the design and delivery of strategy, activation and sustainability programmes’.

He says a sustainable mega event is an “oxymoron”, but adds: “If planned properly, there are opportunities to create events where their legacy impact outweighs the absolute impact of the event.”

For example, he says: “I worked as part of the London 2012 sustainability team which had some great sustainability achievements but also gave me insight into some areas that needed improving.

“The fuel used in the Olympic and Paralympic sailing events was the same as all the racing cars in 12 Formula One races. This was clearly an area that could be (and needed to be) improved.

“Fast forward a few years and I was Head of Sustainability at World Sailing and we teamed up with Paris 2024 to create Challenge 2024, which was launched in 2019.

“This was a challenge to the industry to invest in more sustainable support boats.”

Dan continues: “We used the Tokyo Olympics to refine our needs, with GPS trackers showing range and speed requirements and using the Paris Olympics as a catalyst for technologies led to various companies investing in support boats which were either electric or hydrogen.”

He clearly dreams big. “Imagine if the Olympics and the various federations required all sports equipment to be made from lower carbon materials but still met performance criteria,” he says.

“This would trickle down to the millions and millions of pieces of sports equipment purchased.”

Legacy, legacy, legacy

It is the word that, like a Rafa Nadal backhand, keeps coming back. Without legacy, there can be little progress.

Dan says: “Often with events, teams quickly disappear and so it is important to work out how you are going to capture success stories which you can repeat, as well as the challenges to overcome next time.

“Knowledge transfer around sustainability is an area the industry certainly can improve on but encouragingly we are seeing much more interest in sustainable measures and fan engagement at events as many see this as a key area to address as a licence to operate.”

He adds: “Sponsorship agencies will tell the brands pumping millions into sport events they can change consumer behaviours and so sustainable behaviours can be seen in a similar way.”

It’s certainly worth the effort. We love the Olympics and we rely on (and should love) the planet.

Dan wants us to have both: “Pinnacle events such as the Olympics set the standard for sport and so it is important sustainability is not a new component of how to run major events, but it should be how we operate – protecting our playground has never been so important.”

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