Olympics to learn from Birmingham’s green success
The recent Birmingham Commonwealth Games have been praised by a Midlands green energy expert for dramatically reducing its environmental impact.
“It set such a high standard,” said Ron Fox, of Noreus Ltd, “that organisers of the Paris Olympics in 2024 say they will learn from that event as they aim for their carbon emissions to be 50 per cent lower than the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Games.
Around 4,500 athletes traveled to the summer jamboree held between July 28 and August 8, 2022, and it was the biggest sporting occasion ever for the Commonwealth which included 19 sports and 283 medal events across 11 days.
To make the event as sustainable as possible, organisers:
- Reused or renovated existing sites, rather than building new ones from scratch.
- Cut back on plastic waste, such as single-use bottles, by providing free water so spectators could bring their own reusable containers.
- Reduced travel and carbon emissions by putting some athletes near their training and competition sites.
- Ensured it was a public transport games by providing incentives to use buses, trains and trams and discouraging people to come in their cars.
- Supplied cleaner environmental buses and developed a car fleet containing hybrid and electric vehicles to transport officials and athletes around the sites.
- Used cleaner, more efficient generators.
- Will give away more than 16,000 items of sports equipment used by teams and athletes across all of the venues during the Commonwealth Games to local sport and community groups in the West Midlands. They include bikes, martial arts mats, T20 cricket equipment, basketballs, boxing gloves and weights, as well as general equipment, such as cones and bibs. For more details go to www.sportengland.org
Ron added: “I was very impressed that the French want these Olympics to be fully aligned with the Paris Agreement which united nearly all the world’s nations, for the first time, to limit world temperature rises to 1.5C and to cut the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global warming.”
He said that historically, major sporting events have had a significant impact on the environment, because of building new venues, as well as travel, energy and food all contributing to their carbon footprint.
French organisers are planning on using 95 per cent of existing or temporary infrastructure and have already held discussions with their Birmingham counterparts on a range of sustainability issues, including approaches to catering and waste management.
To put this in context, Ron said that this year’s football World Cup in Qatar this year is planning to limit its environmental impact, but it is estimated by organisers FIFA it will still produce around 3.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, which is more than some countries’ annual emissions.
“The Commonwealth Games were a great success and were a superb advertisement in showing other countries how to stage international sport in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way,” said Ron, of Noreus Ltd on the University of Keele Science Innovation Park. “We now need to build on this for all future world sporting events.”
For more information on how to cut your carbon footprint, call Ron on 01782 756995.
Caption: Sign of a green success – the official logo for this year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the West Midlands.
