As our summers grow hotter, Europe’s cities are increasingly seeking new ways to provide their citizens opportunities to cool down. A river in the middle of a city can go a long way to that end, but as Olympic triathletes found out, cleaning up river waste is no easy feat. Cleaning up the Seine is just one of many actions ICLEI Member Paris (France) took to make the Olympics carbon-free and sustainable, with long-lasting positive effects for its citizens.
The city implemented a socially responsible purchasing strategy, committing to environmental and social innovation in contracts. These contracts had a special focus on the circular economy, social enterprises, inclusion of people with a distance to the labour market and the creation of local value by encouraging small and large businesses to join forces in consortia.
In preparation for the Games, the Olympic Works Delivery Company SOLIDEO awarded 5 billion euro worth of contracts, covering among others, the construction and renovation of sporting facilities and stadiums, the Olympic Village, IT services, broadcasting equipment and services, the upgrading of the transport system, catering services, and official merchandise.
SOLIDEO committed to providing 10% of contracted working hours to jobseekers looking to reintegrate into the labour market and providing 25% of contracts to small-medium enterprises (SMEs) and social and solidarity economy (SEE) organisations. Since the Games began, SOLIDEO’s commitments have been surpassed, with over 2.9 million hours of work completed by job seekers looking to reintegrate into the labour market and 37% of committed amounts billed to SMEs and SSE companies.
Yet it is not only sustainable procurement in action at these Olympic Games- circular economy principles are also integrated. The Olympic aquatic centre in Saint-Denis took the principles of ecodesign into account, using many bio-sourced materials and 5000 seats in the stadium were produced using locally sourced plastic. The Department of Seine-Saint-Denis will further benefit from some of the Paris 2024 warm-up skateparks. One of them will be reused for a project in the City of Noisy-le-Sec (part of Est Ensemble) and administered by the municipality. Moreover, Est Ensemble Grand Paris will reuse a swimming-pool basin from Paris 2024 to construct a public swimming-pool in Bagnolet.
Paris 2024 received the ISO 20121 certification on sustainable event management systems in 2022, and was also labelled with an “exemplary” level in compliance with ISO 20400 standard on responsible procurement. However, it will take a few years until the true sustainable legacy of the Games can be assessed.