Paris 2024 The Sustainable Olympics?

Were the Paris Olympics the Greenest Ever?

The truth was the olympics were headed towards a funding dead end and unsustainable in their current form. Few countries and cities could actually afford the cost of hosting.¹ Previous hosts have spent big on venues and infrastructure only for them to be later abandoned.

Fittingly Paris and France as the instigator of the modern games have for the first time ever made sustainability goals the core of the hosting project.

Paris aim was a rebirth to give the Olympics two things it needed going forwards, environmental and economic sustainability.

Environmental Sustainability

The main goal was to half carbon emissions from the games². Any new projects should be carbon-neutral in their impact. To achieve this they made some big changes to how summer games are usually built out.

They Used Existing Venues

Where possible Paris used the facilities they had and only essential new infrastructure was built and for that to be low neuatral and sustainable.

The aquatics center by VenhoevenCS & Ateliers 2/3/4/ is the only major new venue, but of course it’s a sustainable building.

Cut Waste and recycle More

All the Athletes furniture for their dormitories were made out of cardboard.³ Over 60% of the food served is due to be Vegetarian also helping lower the carbon footprint.

Notoriously there was no built in air-conditining in the athletes rooms, some olympic teams brought their own air-conditioning units.

Address Transportation Costs

50% of the emissions from the games this time will come from travel and accommodation. Organisers are using carbon offsets to counter the travel emissions which the games can’t otherwise alleviate.

Public transport was encouraged with Metro, Trains and Buses all putting on extra journeys. New sustainable infrastructure was also added for instance Paris added 315km of cycle track for the public in hosting the cycle races.

Housing

One of the biggest new developments was the athletes village is located between the towns of Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen and l’Ile-Saint-Denis in the northern suburbs of Paris, about 9 km from the city center, on the banks of the river Seine and masterplanned by Dominique Perrault.

The village is designed to be used as social housing after the games have finished so the cost of the Athletes village which was $1.85 billion will be an investment and not a waste.

When the games are finished about 6,00 residents will move in with parks, schools, offices, supermarkets, health services and transport system ready. It’s been designed to conform to the 2050 Net Zero Europe strategy.

Image: Paris Olympic Village, Picture by Drone Press/Sennse, courtesy of Paris 2024

The Olympic village apartments are Point Access Blocks. A typology I really like as they allow for good daylight, views adaptability and natural cross ventilation.⁴

Floor Plan: ATHLETE’S VILLAGE LOT E2B, CoBe Architecture et Paysage

Benefits

Is the Paris Olympics Greenwashing? I think they have looked at the fundamentals of the games from the bottom up and done their best. I hope the next games in Los Angeles can learn from the Paris games and can build on what was done.

While the dangers of hosting the Olympics are clear - huge costs that tend to spiral up. There are some potential benefits. Paris was able to clean up the Seine (somewhat) and providing for the games has given Paris the opportunity to build a lot of high quality social housing.

Compared to previous games which splurged the money on status and the show Paris maybe points to a games that is a tool to provide a celebration which can also give the opportunity to address bigger urban problems with solutions.

Location 48°51’37.0”N 2°17’32.5”E