Sustainable Olympic Games: the legacy of the clean Seine and the global inspiration for the mega-events to come

The London Olympic Games were among those that most emphatically proposed the concept of sustainability as part of the legacy that those competitions left, especially for the eastern part of the English capital.

From the cleaning of the Lea and Bow Back rivers to the so-called soil hospital, which served to cure and recycle almost 80 percent of the land reused to fill the spaces gained from the old heavy industrial factories in the area, the London project had several aspects that are now replicated and even optimized by the Paris 2024 organization.

Georgina Grenón is an Argentinian based in France, an expert in renewable energy and in technology innovation in clean energy. More than that, she is the engineer in charge of the Sustainability area of the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee.

Less than 100 days before the opening ceremony, she referred to one of the concerns that appeared in the international press and media around the world: that the Seine River is ready for open water and triathlon competitions: “With the Seine, what was done was to go to the causes of the pollution and treat them one by one. We’re still in the process, it’s going to be clean by July. The four reasons for the origin of the pollution have been addressed. Therefore, we are confident that the water will have the necessary quality. Some tests didn’t work out because we haven’t finished,” explained Grenón, who has been working on durability issues for 20 years.

The works related to the Seine had different focuses, although the fundamental issue involved the construction of a large retention pool next to the Austerlitz station to prevent water from going directly to the river during heavy rains. There were also works on the purification plants so that it can be treated. Grenón assured that, starting in 2025, there will be three areas of the Seine enabled for bathers: “That will be part of the permanent legacy of the Olympic Games for the city,” she remarked.

Since the conception of Paris 2024, the Organizing Committee promised to make the Games as responsible as possible and aligned itself with the 2015 Paris Agreement, with the commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent compared to the previous Olympic Games. One of the first decisions made was not to build. What little was built, was built with 30 percent less carbon footprint than a current construction. This objective was achieved by applying new techniques and using 100 percent renewable energies. “We like to talk about immaterial legacies such as methods, new ways of building and buying to inspire festivals and mega-events that will take place in the future,” Grenón said in an interview with Argentine television.

“To make the Games, we need six million objects. Today, 90 percent of those objects already have a second life assured. We completely rethink the way we supply ourselves with these objects so that everything has a later life. We have also tried to ensure that nothing has the Paris 2024 logo, because if you brand it, property protection issues mean that it cannot be reused,” Grenón explained as one of the conceptual seals in her area. “We seek to work on the material footprint, not just on the carbon footprint. As if we had made a grocery list with everything we needed to do the Olympic Games. This allowed us to understand what we needed to then reduce the impact.”

The objective of organizing environmentally responsible Olympic and Paralympic Games with the city of Paris, with the French State, with the International Olympic Committee and with the sponsors is a titanic task. Food service is another point that needed to be reviewed in order to reduce the carbon footprint. 13 million meals will be served during the Games and the village must supply 40,000 daily menus: “There will be more vegetable supply than you would normally find in a French catering service. 80 percent of the ingredients will come from France and, in addition, 25 percent of them will come from 250 kilometers around the venue where that food is served,” said Grenón.

The recommendation for fans who come to enjoy the Olympic Games is to go with a reusable bottle, since there will be refill fountains at all the official sites of Paris 2024. In addition, it is recommended to use public transport considering that in August the city has a 30 percent drop in Parisian users of the subway, bus and train network, since it is summer vacation season and a large part of the permanent inhabitants leave the city.