With the Olympic break in sight, this summer's Breaking (RE)NEWS will be devoted entirely to the Games, because, as we all know, transition is everywhere. So, forgiving us for taking the occasional side road, let's turn our attention to the Paris 2024 Games, Green or not Green? Let's face it, opinions are divided on the question. As is often the case, the answers differ according to the players involved and the angle they take. Whether you're talking about the organizers, the partners, the non-governmental organizations, the sustainable features or the event's sponsors, it's impossible to have a clear-cut opinion!
Among those most convinced of the sustainable nature of the Paris Olympic Games (JOP) is the Ministry of Ecological Transition, which on its website praises the merits of its action, believing that the Games even represented "a tremendous opportunity for France to accelerate its ecological transition". Key figures speak for themselves:
The three angles chosen by the Ministry are detailed on its website:
- Better transport and mobility: transporting 800,000 people a day, limiting carbon emissions, offering accessible transport for people with disabilities, decarbonizing river transport and minimizing the impact of the Games on users' daily mobility. Thanks to the investments and solutions developed to meet these challenges, all Olympic venues will be accessible by public transport. In the Île-de-France region, 100% of spectators can reach competition venues by public transport, on foot or by bicycle.
- Better planning, building and housing: sobriety and sustainability are at the heart of the Paris 2024 Games. As a result, 95% of the sites used are already existing or temporary infrastructures. The few structures created especially for the event will be reconverted after the Games. This is notably the case for the athletes' village, which has been included in the EcoQuartier certification process, as it has been designed with a sustainable city approach.
- Protecting our environment and climate: these Games are the first to be aligned with the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement. The aim is to halve their carbon footprint compared with previous editions. Great attention is also being paid to the natural heritage and biodiversity of the venues.
The Games' organizing committee is not to be outdone in highlighting the efforts made. Taking up the themes put forward by the Ministry, the organizers add the question of circularity, which is dear to us at (RE)SET. They have therefore organized "more circular games", reads their website, which stresses in particular that "it takes a lot of resources, materials and objects to organize the Olympic and Paralympic Games. To manage them more sustainably and limit waste, Paris 2024 has banked on the circular economy." This principle is reflected in the interior design of the 40 or so competition and non-competition venues. Tents, partitions, chairs, computers, sports equipment or signage... For each object, Paris 2024 has questioned the need and shared the use when possible. This approach, for example, enabled the number of furniture items to be reduced by almost 25%, from the 800,000 originally required to around 600,000. As a result of these reduction efforts, Paris 2024 has chosen to rent or make available 90% of its furniture rather than buy it. Paris 2024 has also made strong commitments to limit the amount of event-related waste, particularly in the catering sector, by deploying fountains and using returnable packaging. Lastly, Paris 2024 has encouraged eco-design by integrating it as far as possible into its products and services: choosing more natural or low-carbon materials such as wood, reusing, sourcing more locally, manufacturing in France, working with players in the social and solidarity economy... By way of example: some of the Village's furniture is reused or recycled: in common areas, there are poufs made from parachute canvas, tables made from 90% used badminton shuttlecocks, and chairs and sofas made from fencing. In the bedrooms, the bed bases are made from cardboard so that they can be recycled after the Games, and the 16,000 mattresses on which the athletes sleep will be donated to a number of beneficiaries, including Emmaüs, the École hôtelière and the École de ballet de l'Opéra de Paris.
Nice effort, let's face it
The story doesn't say, or rather doesn't yet say, whether the athletes slept well.
As far as NGOs are concerned, at least one of them is rather convinced: the WWF. It has to be said that a strategic partnership had been concluded between it and Paris 2024. And as Tony Estanguet put it, "our strategic partnership with WWF France and the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations guarantees that sustainability best practices are at the heart of our bid." The WWF also took the opportunity to launch a clever campaign, under the slogan "Yes to Olympic records, no to climate records", including a well-crafted video featuring a text read by iconic sports journalist (for those over 50) Nelson Monfort, listing "the records not to be broken". A good point.
However, it is possible to look at things from a different angle, as other experts and NGOs have done, logically focusing on the "transport" aspect. Like infrastructure construction, transport accounts for around a third of emissions. After all, a significant proportion of the spectators came by plane, and from very far away. According to the Paris tourist office, of the 11.3 million visitors expected (excluding the Paralympic events), 1.5 million are expected to come from abroad, including 65,000 from long-haul destinations. " That's enough to make the carbon footprint explode," reacts Alexandre Florentin, Paris councillor for Génération écologie. He believes that we could have "limited the number of arrivals from distant countries by drawing lots". More broadly, he considers that "the number of events and the scope of the event should have been reduced". Against this backdrop, " the Organizing Committee is doing everything it can to green the Games, albeit within the limits of the current system," says Christine Nedelec, President of France Nature Environnement Paris. At the end of the day, its efforts are comparable to those of the hummingbird in the face of fire ", reads La Croix. And " offsetting emissions by purchasing unreliable certificates that don't always compensate as much as they promise " is not going to change the situation. The issue of air transport therefore remains a major one, even if the image of empty skies (overflight bans) more than 150 kilometers around Paris for the opening ceremony may be an illusion.
At the forefront of the dissatisfied is the media outlet Reporterre, which for months has been tallying up the "destruction" that would make the Olympics "a social and ecological disaster", to use the words of this activist media outlet. This illustration sums up Reporterre's highly critical analysis of the impact of the Games. In terms of social cleansing, the "undesirables" - the homeless, migrants and residents of working-class neighborhoods - were evicted to build brand-new districts. According to figures compiled by the Le Revers de la médaille collective, over 12,000 people were evicted for the event. The media also describes the Games as an "ecological disaster", since 1.58 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent will be released into the atmosphere by travellers from all over the world.
As for the sponsors, while EDF did very well with its electric bowl, the presence of Coca-Cola (leader in single-use disposable plastic), Samsung (and its rare earths) and above all Toyota (car manufacturing) were denounced by all environmentalists...
And to be complete about the detractors of the Olympics, we shouldn't forget the extremist militants of Extinction Rébellion who tried unsuccessfully to disrupt the games. Le Parisien reveals that a total of 45 Extinction Rébellion activists were arrested last week at various locations around the capital. There had already been 14 arrests between the Île de la cité and Châtelet. Thirty-one other activists who came to Paris were spotted in the 1st and 6th arrondissements and taken into custody "for participation in a group formed with a view to committing violence or damage". Géraldine Poivert, co-founder of (RE)SET, explains our radical vision of ecology here.
As regular Breaking (RE)NEWS readers may have guessed, it's impossible to say how "sustainable" these games really are. It's undeniable that major efforts have been made and progress made. But it is also clear that the very concept of the Olympic Games, as it stands today, does not allow for a "net positive environmental contribution". The wisest thing to do is to heed the advice published by ADEME : one day, indeed, we'll have to "completely rethink the concept of major international sporting events (GESI)", no doubt by splitting them up, choosing different dates, and rethinking the venues in order to bring them as close as possible "to the citizen.
Before we close this "Breaking (RE)NEWS Special Games", we'd like to shed a few more lights on the subject, in line with our traditional columns.
First, this week's swim in the Seine: before the triathletes, it was done for the Mayor of Paris, the positive outcome of a soap opera reported in Breaking (RE)NEWS, but we've only known the epilogue to this swim for a few days: all things considered, on that day, the water quality didn't meet the minimum requirements, Libération tells us! In fact, the thresholds for E.Coli bacteria recommended by the European health authorities were exceeded. In Anne Hidalgo's defense, it should be remembered that bacteriological analysis of samples taken from the Seine takes 24 hours, so the latest available results were those of the previous day, which were in compliance. The epilogue to the epilogue was that none of the bathers complained of the slightest intestinal or dermatological upset. As swimming coach Philippe Lucas explained on RMC, "In Rio, it was the same problem, in Tokyo, it was the same problem. In Paris, it's the same, but they're going to swim and that's that. They'll have two buttons on their c**, period, and then everything will be fine". Now that's clear.
On a more serious note, and to get to the heart of the matter, this brings us back to a more general and fundamental issue: the management of fecal matter in Paris. In a fascinating article, The Conversation reminds us that over 99.9% of the microbiological contamination present in wastewater comes from faecal matter, even though it represents only 0.1% of the volume of wastewater produced per person per day. Separating faecal matter from wastewater would therefore remove almost all the risk. But then, France opted for "tout à l'égout" in the 19th century and has stuck to it ever since. Although wastewater is now mainly treated in wastewater treatment plants, these systems are often not designed to effectively eliminate fecal pathogens. As a result, health risks persist. In France, only 1.6% of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are equipped with disinfectant treatment. What's more, in many cities, and Paris in particular, domestic wastewater is mixed with runoff water in rainy weather in a so-called combined sewer, where wastewater and rainwater pass through a single pipe. The capacity of these sewers is necessarily limited, which means that every time it rains above a certain intensity, stormwater mixed with domestic wastewater is mechanically discharged. Solutions do exist, however: even though sewerage has become the norm in Western cities, it is not the only way to manage faecal matter. Other systems exist, based on differentiated effluent management and commonly referred to as "source separation". These other systems are often based on dry management of fecal matter to limit dilution. They have been the norm for centuries, and are gradually being reinstated in France, both in rural and urban areas. Today, they are once again being deployed on a case-by-case basis. Examples include projects in Brittany and Bordeaux. Historically, these systems have posed problems for the evacuation of waste and the diffusion of foul odors into buildings and streets, particularly during emptying. These inconveniences are not inevitable, as long as care is taken in the management of faecal matter. By observing the practices of users in the field, it appears that dry management of faecal matter could offer better control of the sanitary risk by confining the matter from the toilet to hygienic treatment. At (RE)SET, we're also interested in micropollutants in water, but we're not done with organic waste!
Enough fecal matter, and for the pleasure of the images, here are two to remind us that swimming in the Seine, which we hope will remain possible in the future, has been traditional in Paris since the 12th century and was even very fashionable in the 1920s:
An image not so far removed from this one, from a few days ago:
In our Animal Biodiversity section (yes, it's a bit of a stretch, but it's summertime), this week's pet of the week is Beacon, the American team dog! A 4-year-old Golden Retriever, Beacon is a full-fledged member of the team in his capacity as "therapy dog". As reported by USA Today, the dog was adopted by Tracey Callahan Molnar, a former rhythmic gymnastics coach. He has been trained to accompany, comfort and support athletes. Beacon is part of a canine therapy program dating back to February 2023. A total of 16 dogs have been integrated into the program. Just goes to show that our animal friends also have a role to play in competition.
And of course, we mustn't forget "man's best friend", the horse, which has played a crucial role in equestrian events...
The riddle in our previous issue was a slightly mysterious photo. The clue was that any resemblance to a well-known toy would be ... partially misleading! And indeed, toy manufacturer Lego is no stranger to this brick, but it wouldn't fit in a child's hand. For they are the result of a collaboration with scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA), inspired by the LEGO System in Play. They took a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite and 3D-printed bricks. And these LEGO bricks are part of an epic project to design (and soon build) launch pads and shelters for... astronauts on the Moon. Since it's difficult and expensive to send raw (or processed) materials to the Moon, scientists have been investigating what materials can be found locally to build habitats. As we know, there isn't much there, except regolith. There's no regolith on Earth (apart from a few grams brought back from lunar expeditions), but the closest thing we have to regolith is stardust, from meteorites that have fallen on our planet. Hence the idea of building bricks that could be manufactured on site. For Lego fans and space enthusiasts alike, some of the bricks will be on display in selected LEGO Stores, including the one in Paris (at Les Halles) over the summer.
This week's riddle has something to do with the Games. And since it's hot, it's easy. When was this magical photo taken?
Happy reading, happy weekends and happy vacations!
