Since the end of the 20th century, official institutions acknowledged environmental protection as an important global issue and the International Olympic Movement established the environment as one of its three pillars, along with sport and culture. The reasons leading to that decision must first be analyzed, before we proceed to the subject-matter of this paper. The 1992 Winter Games in Albertville had a negative environmental impact on the alpine region of south-eastern France: landslides, road building, deforestation, disruption of natural habitat, permanent facilities without post-event use, non-recyclable waste and other largely unaccounted costs. As a result, the Albertville Games were the first ever to have their Opening Ceremony preceded by a local community’s protest march for the protection of its natural surroundings and quality of life.

These events marked the beginning of a new quest, usually coined as “environmental friendly sport”, which, among other objectives, aims for the greening of the Games. Moreover, 1992 was a seminal year both for sport and for global environmental concerns: the Earth Summit (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development) was held in Rio de Janeiro and the President of IOC, Juan Antonio Samaranch, publicly recognized the priority of an environmental agenda for preserving the Olympic heritage. Shortly after this declaration, the IOC adopted “sustained development” as a concept referring to a desirable balance between expending and conserving natural resources.

Since then, the IOC has been acting according to a global environmental plan. Its set of objectives, often named “Agenda 21”, proposes first and foremost the “reduction and elimination of non-sustainable production and consumption patterns”. In the same vein, the “Manual on Sport and the Environment”, published by the IOC in 1997, proposed the following “three pillars” for Olympism: sport, culture and environment (p. 9, 69).

For most members of the Olympic Family, the word “environment” refers to a responsible ecological concern, as highlighted by the Centennial Olympic Congress (Paris, 1994), the ten World Conferences on sport and the environment sponsored by the IOC, and by the inclusion of an eco-friendly recommendation for the role and mission of IOC in the Olympic Charter (Rule 2, par. 13, 2015):

[...] to encourage and support a responsible concern for environmental issues, to promote sustainable development in sport and to require that the Olympic Games are held accordingly [...]

More specifically, the above mentioned “manual” favored certain environmental policies and management practices for protecting natural resources in the context of the Olympic Games. The twelve specific requirements to which a bidding city has to respond are:

• Information on the public environment management system

• A brief survey of local environmental conditions

• Official guarantees of environmental protection during all works necessary for the organization of the Games

• Environmental impact assessments for all sites and facilities

• An environmental action plan for the Games

• Creation of an environmental awareness program

• List of efforts made to protect and enhance the natural environment

• Consultation of environmental organizations and submission of their assessment

• List of efforts to minimize environmental impacts

• Plans for solid waste handling, sewage treatment and energy management

• Description of environmental pilot projects

• Indicate special features that the bidding committee would like to add

The bid for the 2004 Games was the first where the sustainability requirements were performed by all candidate cities, in spite of the prevailing diversity of interpretations regarding the IOC’s criteria of eligibility. Thus, the bidding of the city of Rio de Janeiro at the XXXI Olympiad was modeled according to the parameters set by the IOC in Theme 6 “Environment and Meteorology”.

Historically speaking, the city of Rio de Janeiro, and Brazil in general, evokes numerous contradictory impressions. In fact, since the opening of its territory to foreigners in 1808, the country has been regarded as a tropical paradise of lush vegetation and beautiful beaches and, simultaneously, as a society defined by flexible social behavior and social inequality. The city displays a stunning combination of beaches, lagoons, rocky mountains and forests – in fact, it has the largest forest in an urban environment in the world, encompassing 29,000 hectares and 20% of its total area. In Rio also lies the heart of a metropolitan area with 21 municipalities, with more than 12 million inhabitants, and a history of environmental degradation, which is typical in developing countries.

In line with the prioritization of environmental protection, the candidacy of Rio de Janeiro to host the Games in 2016 has assumed a commitment to integrate sustainability criteria throughout the Games (pre-, peri-, and post-event). The principles underlying this integration are defined in the ABNT NBR ISO 20121 standards for sustainability management systems in events: responsibility, inclusion, integrity, and transparency.

The preparation for the candidature followed thoroughly the IOC’s requirements, seeking to meet the set of abovementioned questions. According to official documents, the sustainability management plan was based on three pillars corresponding to the principles of sustainable development ratified by the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development Rio 1992:

• Planet signifies the overall environmental commitment of the Games to act locally with a global vision of sustainability

• People indicates the need for ample social benefits, consistent and inclusive for the entire Rio public

• Prosperity symbolizes well administered and transparently managed Games, and economic growth for the city.

This plan was based on the original action plans and commitments established in the Candidature File and it continuously incorporates and builds on them as, not just the projects and programs of Olympic and Paralympic Games, but also sustainability as a concept evolved to include new practices, technologies, international standards and legislation at the federal, state and local levels.

The action plan divides the responsibilities between the organizing committee and government agencies. The responsibility matrix is quite complex to discuss in detail, but it is important to note that while the responsibilities of the Rio 2016 are directly related to the operation of the Games, the actions provided for government are related to existing policies or implementation and relate mainly to the construction of facilities and operation of the city and everything that is beyond the organizing committee’s responsibility.

Although the operational phase of the Games has already begun, conclusive data are not yet available. Actually, the available data dates back to 2013 and 2014. For the purposes of this paper we will focus on aspects included under the label “Planet”, while recognizing the multiple facets and vast scope of environmental issues. This is due to the fact that under this label there are four themes of central interest for environmental protection: (1) Transport and logistics; (2) Sustainable design and construction; (3) Environment conservation/clean-up; (4) Waste management.

The 2016 Games are committed to reducing the environmental footprint left by the preparation and operation of the event, leaving behind a living example of more sustainable practices. On the other, one should openly consider constraints such as: the installed capacity of the market and the infrastructure, the stage of maturity of new technologies, products and services, the respect for budgets, the ability to control versus decisions of others, changes in behaviour or other factors beyond the control. Because of the Games’ ambitious goals, a sustainability program with a very wide scope was developed and the initial objectives that were defined during the candidate stage have been broken down into various projects.

Considerable progress has already been achieved, given that many actions and projects have been initiated and one has been completed, as the following table summarising the evaluation of project maturity shows.

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Of course, the fact that actions regarding different issues have been initiated does not authorize us to say that the goals have been achieved. In several cases, progress has been recorded. It is also noteworthy that, at this moment, it is particularly difficult to attribute a causal relationship between on-going projects and the results that will be manifested in the Games. The Olympics are part of a wider picture, giving impetus, rather than being the sole cause of change. The issue of water quality is a good example. For the Olympic Games, monitoring and evaluating relevant data is extremely important. It is necessary to ensure there will be no health risks for the athletes competing in aquatic sports like swimming, sailing, and canoeing.

The Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon is located in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro and is a part of the Copacabana Zone; the sports that will be taking place there will be Rowing, Canoeing and Kayaking. The Guanabara Bay is the second largest bay on the Brazilian coast and is about 380km2 wide, reaching almost all the metropolitan region of the State of Rio de Janeiro. The high pollution levels found in the Guanabara Bay were caused by a process of degradation, reflecting the inadequate management of wastewater and solid waste in the region during the expansion of the Metropolitan Region. The sailing competitions will take place in the Guanabara Bay, so it is necessary to guarantee the water quality for bathing.

While bathing water’s quality is being tested on the main beaches of Rio de Janeiro city, this is not so in the middle of the bay. Accordingly, we note that the beaches of Copacabana, Barra da Tijuca, Recreio, and Praia Vermelha were suitable for bathing. This is a positive result considering that Aquatics Marathon and Triathlon will be occurring on Copacabana beach and the Olympic and Paralympic beach, a social area for athletes, will be located on Barra beach. Athletes involved in water activities on the beaches will, therefore, have no health hazards if these conditions are maintained until the Games. However, the beaches of Flamengo and Botafogo were classified as inappropriate for bathing. This is a very unfortunate situation, since they are located inside the Guanabara Bay and indicate the poor quality of the water in that region. Another problem is the solid waste carried by the rivers that reach the bay. The competition areas are located in waters in which there are no biological threats; inevitably, however, the participants will have to go through areas of polluted water upon their arrival and departure.

Regarding environmental quality, Rio benefits by the organizing of the Games, but water quality still depends on continuous investments in sanitation. This problem affects some locations chosen as competition sites. Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon can already attest to the results of recent recovery projects, but current status of the Guanabara Bay shows that it is not yet up to Olympic standards.

To conclude, it seems that the Rio 2016 Games will serve as an example of good sustainable practices by embracing low-impact operations in its processes. On the other hand, this is not the case with matters that are under the responsibility of governments. Although many advances have been registered, it is necessary to recognize that since the city submitted its candidacy, the world has experienced major economic problems that affected Brazil’s growth rate and the capacity for public investments.

This means that the final analyses on these and other issues need thorough data and this task falls under the responsibilities of the organizing committee and the governments. Only then can we get more accurate conclusions on the potential environmental legacies of the Olympic Games in Rio.

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Sources

Olympic Games Impact Study – RIO 2016 Initial report to measure the impacts and the legacy of the Rio 2016 Games (2014). Rio de Janeiro: The OGI – SAGE/COPPE/ UFRJ Research Team.

Candidature File for Rio de Janeiro to Host 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games (2009). Rio de Janeiro: Rio 2016.

Sustainability Management Plan: Rio 2016TM Olympic and Paralympic Games (2013). Rio de Janeiro: Rio 2016TM Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committees.

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TAVARES Otávio, "Enviromental protection on the occasion of Rio de Janeiro Games’ preparation",in:K. Georgiadis (ed.), Olympic values-based learning as an effective tool forenvironmental protection, 56th International Session for Young Participants (AncientOlympia,11-25/6/2016), International Olympic Academy, Athens,2017, pp.87-95.

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