Summer: Sustainable Events

July 2024

A Guilt Free Olympics

After a long 4 year wait the Paris Olympic Games will finally be happening this summer. What you may not know about the build up to these games is that the Olympic Committee set an ambitious target of more than halving the emissions of previous games. The last three Olympic games produced 3.5 million tonnes of CO2 which is the equivalent of India and Germany’s yearly emissions! It seems pretty ambitious so how are they planning on doing it?

• Two venues constructed in comparison to London’s eight. Materials of these buildings are being considered more than previously.

• Powering the games with 100% renewable energy.

• 80% of 13 million athletes meals will be produced by local farms. Of which 60% will be vegetarian.

• Planted 300,000 new trees and 800 miles of bike lanes around the city which will continue to benefit Paris’s emissions/pollution levels indefinitely.

• Single use plastic banned. It will be replaced with a deposit scheme for food and drink containers.

• Investment into a fleet of 2,650 electric vehicles to transport people to and from the venues and Olympic village.

• Running a responsible procurement strategy for their suppliers to encourage further change past the two week event.

The target even includes scope 3 meaning indirect emissions such as spectators international travel. Much of the emissions that are not able to be reduced have been offset with several projects, the first of which was started in 2021.

Croyde Ocean Triathlon

The event organisers teamed up with Plastic Free North Devon to become the first plastic free events company of its kind. They limited their waste by asking suppliers to change the packaging their purchases came in for instance cardboard instead of plastic. This will have a knock-on effect making manufactures think twice about the effects of their packaging. All competitors are given bamboo reusable cups which saved 1200 plastic water bottles last year. This has been replaced by a water bar at the start and finish line of the event. This helps to leave no trace after an event and saves the events organisers money in the long-term from kit that can be used time and time again.

Check out Plastic Free ND’s Events Toolkit.

361 Energy Fair

We would like to invite you to 361 Energy’s Energy Fair that is being held in Barnstaple Pannier Marker on Sunday 29th September. We want to try and prevent businesses and individuals from struggling with the winter energy crisis. This is your chance to get to us before our busy period.

We have a Domestic department that helps clients save money on their energy bills and provides free supplies to those in need. There is also a retrofit domestic service for more affluent individuals who want to reduce their carbon footprint and have better energy efficiency.

Our Business Department helps struggling businesses to stay afloat,  large corporations to develop their energy strategy to net zero, and everything in between.

Call to Action

• Use the Plastic Free Events toolkit. No matter how big or small, your events can be less environmentally damaging.

• Sign up to our webinar to have a discussion with us and similar organisations about staff retention.

  
  

• Follow us on Linked In to keep up to date on our movements.

Save the Date

Croyde Ocean Triathlon: 14th July

361 Energy Fair: 29th September

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