Georgina Grenon, Director of Environmental Excellence, on environmental challenges

-Environmental considerations have been at the top of Paris 2024’s agenda since the bid phase. We are therefore working on how we can reduce our impact, focusing on our impact on the climate first of all by minimising our carbon footprint, then turning our attention to biodiversity, our impact on the environment, the circular economy and resilience, the ability to recover. These apply to all aspects of the Games, including energy (we will be using 100% renewable energy during the Games), the infrastructure we build, temporary infrastructure for a lower impact, as well as catering (we are preparing our food vision for a responsible approach to catering at the Games). We’re also looking at more responsible digital technology as large volumes of information and data are generated. Transport is another focus of ours – all venues will be accessible by public transport, so the Olympic family will be able to get around using environmentally friendly modes of transport. In short, environmental considerations affect all Paris 2024 departments and are at the heart of our day-to-day work.

Incorporating our environmental ambitions into an event as large as the Games is a constant challenge that is not easy. It’s the world’s largest event – the equivalent of over 40 championships put together – so it goes without saying that organising it sustainably isn't easy. Having said that, we are working with all Paris 2024 departments, not just the Environmental Excellence department, as well as all our departments and stakeholders such as Paris City Council, which has been working closely with the French State to make the Seine safe to swim in. We’ve teamed up with our partners to find solutions. We’ve set very ambitious objectives and no solutions currently exist for some of them, so we’re working with our entire ecosystem to find solutions that we can implement in 2024 and pass on as a legacy afterwards. The Paris 2024 Games provide a wonderful sounding board for creating a sustainable legacy.

Reducing the event’s carbon footprint has been our objective since the bid phase. We are organising the Games in line with the Paris Agreement, more than halving emissions compared with previous editions. The first step in our strategy was planning ahead to avoid emissions, which is why we decided to build a lot less compared with previous Games – 95% of the infrastructure required already exists or is temporary. This helped us avoid a lot of emissions. Then we started working on how we could reduce our emissions. For instance, we’re working on a low-carbon catering service, as well as other initiatives to further reduce our impact. After anticipating, avoiding, reducing and offsetting emissions comes the fifth step in our strategy – mobilising people. This involves talking to the people around us, raising awareness, teaming up with all our stakeholders to speak to the general public, as well as ensuring the world of sport takes responsibility for its role in climate change and helps turn things around.

Paris 2024’s partners have a very important role to play when it comes to our environmental emissions because, like I mentioned before, we’ve set very ambitious objectives and the solutions don't exist yet – they need to be found and developed. We’re working with our partners to come up with future solutions for us and the Games, of course, but also for all of society. For instance, our partner EDF is providing us with 100% renewable electricity produced in France, which was important for us in terms of knowing exactly where it came from. We developed a solution for our headquarters that enables us to trace exactly where the electricity comes from – it comes from a wind farm and supplements the renewable energy produced by the photovoltaic panels on the roof. We’re working with EDF to come up with similar solutions we can apply across the board for the 2024 Games. That’s but one example. There are many other catering, mobility and construction projects and solutions to be developed, but we are making headway, which is why we can say our ambitions are fast-tracking the move to a more sustainable society.