Paris 2024 swear by sustainability

Article posted by Coliseum, July 3^rd, 2023

Image: Coliseum GSVA

Anthony Piqueras has a huge responsibility on his shoulders. He is in charge of the venues and infrastructures being developed for the greatest sporting extravaganza on the planet – Paris 2024 – and has at his fingertips all the information.

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He is all agog over the fact that Paris (France) is holding the greatest show on earth after 100 years in 2024 – the last time the capital City of France hosted the Olympic Games was in the year 1924.

Piqueras and his team is working overtime to ensure that the Olympic Games is totally carbon-free and are going above and beyond to ensure that the Games will not only be spectacular and scintillating but sustainable too.

Anthony Piqueras is a pro when it comes to spearheading major sports venues’ projects and presently he is leading a huge team who are working round-the-clock to make Paris 2024 a watershed moment.

Anthony Piqueras, Director, Venues and Infrastructures, Paris 2024, shares with ‘Coliseum’ the ABC of Paris 2024 and how they are putting their best foot forward to ensure that it is totally a carbon-free affair – ‘Green’ Olympics.

Paris 2024

The 2024 Summer Olympics, commonly known as Paris 2024, is an upcoming international multisport event that is scheduled to take place from July 26^th to August 11^th, 2024 with Paris as the main Host City and 16 Cities spread across Metropolitan France and one in Tahiti – an island within the French overseas country and overseas collectivity of French Polynesia – as a subsite.

Sustainability Matters

Anthony Piqueras shot off stating that right from the bidding process for the 2024 Games the Organizing Committee of Paris 2024’s import has always been on the sustainability quotient – “In fact, when we decided to throw in our hat to host the Games, we conducted a feasibility study where the sustainability factor was accorded topmost priority.”

Piqueras has been actively associated with the Paris 2024 exercise for the last 10 years now and is well aware of the fact that the Games have to be a net zero affair – “Since the very beginning we wanted to be in sync with the urban development plan of Paris and its surrounding areas and to make sustainability the main pillar”.

He added, “Our goals are clear – we have to halve emissions and offsets by more than 100 percent and the biodiversity will have to be protected across 100 percent of the venues.”

No Venue Building Spree

Pointed out Piqueras, “We formulated a strategy from the very beginning that if we have to make the Games a net zero affair, we will have to utilize the existing venues by upgrading the same – something which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stresses and it is for this reason that we are using 95 percent of the existing or temporary competition venues and have gone in for constructing just one new venue unlike countries who have hosted the Games earlier have gone on a venue construction overdrive.”

To stick to sustainability, the organizers when selecting the existing venues also considered the “clean transportation” angle by ensuring that the facilities are easily accessible by public transport.

He continued, “We also have a masterplan for all the 40 venues. Most of the training venues would be around the Athletes Village which is coming up in Saint-Denis-Bords de Seine, and through the Games we are trying to redevelop this area of Paris.”

Athletes Village

He further provided that the Athletes Village (where the Olympic athletes will reside during the Games) based just North of Central Paris is one of the few new constructions and the design of the Village is based on Nature, biodiversity and carbon neutrality.

To follow sustainability in toto, there will be no airconditioning at the Athletes Village and instead the organizers have installed an underground water-cooling system beneath the Athletes Village.

Swearing by Sustainability

Added Piqueras, “We will be using 100 percent renewable energy during the duration of the Games and all venues will be directly connected to the grids, the adoption of low-carbon menus and prioritizing dishes without meat with stress on vegan food.”

Gender-equal Games

It will be for the first time that Paris 2024 will be a gender-equal game and the IOC deserves plaudits for that.

Aquatics Centre

The Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, France, along with the Le Bourget Climbing Wall, is the only permanent sports facility being built for the Paris 2024 Games – “It is a low-carbon venue with all the building materials being bio-based and the interior fittings are being made of recycled materials.”

He further informed, “Construction work on the Aquatics Centre started in Q2 2021 and is scheduled to be delivered by February 2024. Initially, it was supposed to be built on the lines of the Aquatic Centre of London 2012 with temporary wings but we realized that the cost was exorbitant so we moved to an existing arena and decided to rebuild it. We applied the same formula for the Athletes Village where we decided to totally redecorate an existing building.”

Sum-up

Paris is one of the most beautiful Cities on the planet with its iconic monuments and bridges and artistic performances, its rivers and its quays.

One billion viewers will watch the athletes in action during Paris 2024 and 600,000 spectators will be present.

Anthony Piqueras concluded by stating, “Though the Organizing Committee of Paris 2024 are bending over backwards to put up a splendid and stellar show nevertheless, they have also taken up the huge challenge of meeting the ambitious environmental goals which they are firm on delivering so as to set a precedent and leave behind a lasting ‘Green Games’ legacy. The same counts for the Paralympics Games too to be held from August 28^th-September 8^th, 2024.”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is a non-Governmental sports organization based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss Civil Code.

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