What makes Paris Olympic village eco-friendly? Other interesting facts

The Olympic village for Paris Summer Games 2024 is ready and will be inaugurated by French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday. The facility has been built in a village in the suburb of Saint-Denis, in a run-down area that has been transformed into a 40 low-rise tower blocks.

But apart from being grand and sprawling over five residential areas, each named after a well-known area of Paris: Abbesses, Bastille, Dauphine, Etoile, Fetes, the Paris Olympics athletes’ village will be eco-friendly which promises to emit 50% less carbon than an equivalent residential setup built by traditional methods.

How?

We take a look at how the athletes’ village in Paris has made itself eco-friendly and everything else interesting about it.

Pro environment village

One of the major methods through which the village has tried to cut down emissions is to use natural materials and eco-friendly resources - like low-carbon concrete, wood structures and renewable geothermal heating.

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“We had the intuition – and we think we’ve proved it – that we could provide a sort of template, a demonstration, that dense urban spaces have a future in the 21st century,” Nicolas Ferrand, head of the Paris infrastructure group Solideo, told reporters recently.

The village was a “coherent model of the best things we can do at the start of the 21st century, even a bit ahead of time,” he added.

Other innovations include a mini water-processing plant to recycle water that will be used on the more than 9,000 trees and shrubs that are set to be planted on the site.

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Some pavements have been made from oyster and other seashells to absorb heat, while the beds to be used by athletes are made out of reinforced cardboard and recycled fishing nets.

Costing

Building the eco-friendly village led to nearly 2,000 jobs being created, with 1,136 going to local residents.

The village cost about 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion), most of it investment by property developers but also including 646 million euros ($700 million) from public funds.

Accommodation

More than 14,000 athletes and officials will lodge here for the Olympics and 9,000 for the Paralympics.

A total of 45,000 keys will be handed over on March 1 and athletes start arriving on July 12.

Apartments vary in size but hold a maximum of eight people, with two people per room and one bathroom per four people.

Beds are made from cardboard yet can withstand a maximum weight of 250 kilograms (around 550 pounds).

They were designed for the Tokyo Games, and village director Laurent Michaud says they will be recycled after the Paris Games to “give them another life.”

The raised height of the beds also helps Paralympians.

“The people in wheelchairs can actually make the transfer from the wheelchair to the bed quite easily,” Michaud told The AP. “Same thing for the accessibility of the nightstand and the height of the electric plugs, (which are) higher than usual.”

As a bonus, athletes can keep their reversible duvet: blue side for the Olympics, green for the Paralympics.

World is coming to eat

How to feed so many athletes from so many places at all hours?

Well, the main dining hall is open 24/7, seats 3,260 people and serves 40,000 meals daily.

Executive chef Charles Guilloy calls it “welcoming the world to our table.”

French and Asian cuisine, as well as Caribbean and African food, are catered for, along with other options.

“The restaurant is where the heart of the village is,” Guilloy told The AP. “It’s also a real place for sharing, and cooking is a moment of sharing.”

There is another, smaller restaurant located on L’Île-Saint-Denis, which also houses athletes and is linked by a bridge.

Keeping in shape

To help burn off excess calories from the giant canteen, a main fitness center holds more than 350 machines and two saunas, which can also help athletes control their weight.

There will be seven other training sites dedicated to specific disciplines like weightlifting, modern pentathlon, fencing and wheelchair basketball.

There’s also an onsite hospital and an anti-doping center.

To get around the village, 200 bikes are available as well as electric shuttles.

At a multi-purpose meeting point called Village Plaza, athletes can get a coffee, a haircut, shop for groceries, post a letter, withdraw cash, or watch the Games live on a giant screen.

With agency inputs