Paris 2024: the first sustainable Olympics?

A lot has changed since the first recorded Olympic Games were held in 776 BC at Olympia, Greece. The ancient Olympics were a religious event, held in honour of the Greek god Zeus and, perhaps disappointingly, winners received a crown of olive leaves rather than a shiny medal.

Since their revival in 1896, the Olympic Games have continued to evolve – and Paris 2024 is no exception.

Reflecting the concerns of the present day, Paris 2024 has a strong focus on sustainability. Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, explains:

‘From 2030 onwards, Olympic Games organisers will be obliged to minimise Games-related carbon emissions, contributing to international efforts aligned with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. […] Paris 2024 – the first edition of the Olympic Games to fully benefit from Olympic Agenda 2020 – took this vision to heart, designing Games that are more open, more sustainable, and aligned with today’s challenges.’

Paris 2024’s sustainably strategy includes using mostly existing or temporary venues and connecting all venues to the pre-existing power distribution network, which supplies electricity from renewable sources.

Patented technology is at the heart of this vision of a sustainable Olympic Games.

One of the sites selected to supply renewable electricity to Paris 2024 is EDF’s Lazer (Hautes-Alpes) floating solar farm. EDF have also installed a floating mobile solar farm on the river Seine to supply electricity to the Olympic Village.

Some of the technology which may be utilised by EDF’s floating solar farms is outlined in their granted European patent no. 3754842. The patent claims a floating module which supports at least one photovoltaic panel. Several reflective balls may be incorporated into the floating module to produce an improved distribution of reflected light rays on the underside of the panels. The floating reflective balls are shown in Figure 3 of EP3754842, labelled ‘41’.

Turning to the venues: although the Olympic Village and the Aquatics Centre have been specifically built for the Games, each have been constructed with sustainability in mind. The Olympic Village has been built with a 30% reduction in carbon compared to typical French constructions. The Aquatics Centre uses bio-sourced materials, such as French wood, and its seats are made from recycled bottles and caps.

French start-up company Le Pavé produced the recycled plastic for the Aquatics Centre seats, as well as for the award podiums. Le Pavé uses an innovative thermo-compression moulding process to produce their products. The pending international patent application, published as WO 2024/121514 A1, describes an example of Le Pavé’s moulding process. To improve energy efficiency, this process involves regulating the temperature of the press used to compress the raw material.

Commitment to sustainability can be seen not only in the infrastructure supporting the Olympics, but on the athletes themselves.

Team USA have been sporting Ralph Lauren polo shirts made from 100% recycled cotton. The recycled cotton utilises CLARUS® technology patented by American start-up company Natural Fiber Welding.

In conventional cotton recycling, the used cotton is shredded into small fibres and spun back into new yarns. By contrast, the technology behind CLARUS® welds short fibres together. This produces higher quality recycled cotton as longer fibres are less likely to pill or break down easily.

Natural Fiber Welding’s European patent no. 3433416 covers some of the technology behind CLARUS®. The patent claims a method for making a welded substrate which involves applying a process solvent to the substrate and heating specific locations on the substrate. The resulting welded substrate contains fibres which are fused or welded together, which may give the substrate improved properties, such as enhanced tensile strength and/or hydrophobicity.

It is clear that sustainability has shaped many aspects of Paris 2024. The organisers aim to halve the carbon footprint of the Games compared to the average for London 2012 and Rio 2016; the extent to which this is achieved will only be known after the Games. Regardless, Paris 2024 marks a new era of sustainability in sport and there is no doubt that patented technology – from start-ups and multinational companies alike – will continue to play a key role.

Read about the ‘Golden Intellectual Property rights’ of the Olympics here.