Experts Discuss How Sports and Sustainability Overlap

• Experts discuss how sporting events like the Paris 2024 Olympics can make sustainable choices in food, energy use and more.
• Composting wasted food and using renewable energy are just a few ways to reduce the carbon footprint of the sports world.
• The conversation was part of the insider event, For a Better Future: Bridging Culture, Business, and Climate, which took place on Tuesday, April 18, 2023.
• Click here to view a recording of the entire event.

When considering sustainability strategy, sporting events are often not seen as the biggest driver. However, the amount of transportation required, energy consumption and waste generated at a typical sporting event comes at a high environmental cost

Georgina Grenon, Director of the Sustainability Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and Roger McClendon, Managing Director of the Green Sports Alliance, spoke during the virtual event co-sponsored by Deloitte “For a Better Future: Bridging Culture, Business, and Climate “ about the connection between sport and sustainability.

During The Race for Sustainability session, when asked about the organization’s sustainability goals, Grenon said, “We have set a target of reducing emissions by 50% compared to previous games.” She said: “We’re serving 13 million meals and we’re doing it in a sustainable way, so we’re once again working through the depth and breadth of the different activities required to deliver the Games.”

In terms of making sport and sporting events more sustainable, McClendon said: “At the heart of this whole discussion around the broader issue of sustainability is the human side, it’s the people. It is our respect for the planet and how we live together in harmony. I think sport is a great representation of that.”

When tasked with delivering 13 million meals with half the usual carbon footprint, Grenon said it was a challenge. After two years, her team found a solution. Grenon said: “To reach this level, which the Paris Agreement calls for, by the way, we need to source more locally and use seasonal ingredients. We also need to reduce the amount of single-use plastic and double the amount of plant-based proteins, plant-based foods.”

McClendon understands that “food is the fuel” in sport. A sustainable solution to the food waste from these events, according to Mclendon, is: “Rather than sending this food waste to landfill, there are ways to compost this food and turn it into valuable nutrients for farms and gardens.” This, he thinks, is merging the solutions to social and environmental impacts.

Sustainability efforts in sport are growing. Grenon noted: “For example, when we launched Sports for Climate Action in 2018, there weren’t many. We were 10, I think, the first signatories. Now it’s about 250.”

When asked why he thinks sport is a good mechanism to drive sustainability, McClendon said he believes sport brings people together regardless of race, class or socioeconomic background.

McClendon said: “It really brings people together in that way, to focus on a common goal and team or goal. And I think that’s not just how fans and people interact, but I think it’s also how the team itself works.”

Grenon echoed this opinion: “Sport generates emotion. Sport reaches people’s hearts and somehow athletes, especially athletes, more than sport in general, can be much more efficient than many of us at raising awareness.”

Grenon shared how to bring sustainability in sport to the Olympics. In contrast to the use of diesel generators as in previous Olympics, she said: “We use 100 percent renewable electricity for the Games. It was therefore natural for us to try to secure grid utilization against the use of diesel generators.”

For sport, “Being more sustainable doesn’t necessarily mean being more expensive or costing more, and we need to explain that more and more so that everyone who serves the sports industry understands the value of being more sustainable as a good thing,” Grenon said .