- The Games' need for a massive infrastructure project has historically hurt host cities' environments.
- Installing and using 5G technology could help minimize the Olympics' environmental impacts.
- This article is part of "5G Playbook," a series exploring one of our time's most important tech innovations.
When thousands of the world's best athletes descend on one city, it can wreak environmental havoc.
No single Olympic Games held between 1992 and 2020 was sufficiently sustainable, found a 2021 study in the journal Nature that assessed the environmental impacts of the Games during that period.
For example, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games damaged the city's local environment when an estimated 77,000 people in favela communities were displaced to make way for the event's infrastructure, according to a retrospective report published in 2023 in the journal Social Sciences.
From an environmental standpoint, the Rio de Janeiro Games produced more than 17,000 metric tons of waste, used 29,500 gigawatts of electricity — the majority of which was not from renewable sources — and resulted in 3.6 million metric tons of carbon emissions, the Rio de Janeiro Games reported.
For the Paris Games, limiting environmental impact has been a greater concern than in past Olympics, with efforts across industries to reduce waste. Rather than build a series of new venues, existing ones have been repurposed. Only one new permanent venue was constructed, and there's more renting than buying when it comes to equipment like furniture to reduce waste. Sustainability initiatives also extend to the 5G technology powering the Olympic Games.
Orange, the telecommunications provider for the Paris Games, has set itself the goal of limiting its carbon emissions to 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. If met, Orange's carbon emissions would account for less than 1% of the total estimated emissions of the 2024 Olympics.
It's the latest example of how 5G providers are supporting sustainability efforts at global-scale live events.
"As sustainability initiatives around large public venues gather steam, we know IT teams are being asked to find ways to contribute to their organization's decarbonization efforts," said Kevin Swank, the product-marketing director at CommScope, a service provider that has worked on sports stadiums in France, Germany, and the US.
Environmentally friendly technology that can support more fans
Though 5G systems require infrastructure installation, their technology is more sustainable than older connectivity systems like analog distributed antenna systems, Swank said.
Digital 5G systems use less power and less cooling than older systems, which need large amounts of power and cabling to run, Swank told Business Insider. And because 5G systems run digitally, they don't require as much physical infrastructure as their predecessors, Swank added.
He said he witnessed the positive impact — on the environment and the fan experience — when CommScope updated the internet infrastructure at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, in 2020.
"The venue was reaching the performance limits of its equipment, and its current network just couldn't keep up with the growing demands of a mobile-device-centric fan base," Swank told BI. The stadium needed a 5G network that could support augmented-reality features and mobile-ordering capabilities for concessions for up to 100,000 visitors at a time.
By switching to 5G, the stadium's network performance increased tenfold, while its power use went down by about 87% and its cooling requirements decreased by up to 75%, a project report from CommScope said. Those reductions equate to over 100 metric tons in CO2 emissions savings a year, Swank said.
The stadium's 5G system resulted in just five equipment storage racks compared with the 30 to 40 racks previously required for its analog equipment.
Because of these advantages, 5G is quickly gaining steam within the entertainment industry as events continue to grow in scale and attendees expect more seamless experiences.
Recycling 5G equipment for more sustainability
To work toward its carbon-emissions goal for the Paris Games, Orange decreased its equipment manufacturing and infrastructure-deployment footprint. Orange, in partnership with the consultancy Carbone4, estimated that 86% of its global footprint came from those two areas.
For the Paris Olympics, the company is using more local suppliers and shipping bulky items by sea rather than air to reduce emissions. Orange said it planned to rent one-quarter of its equipment and estimated that 75% of the equipment would be reused or redeployed after the Games.
Generally, the 5G networks used at sports venues' large events can be reused after the events end and the increased capacity is no longer needed, said Kelvin Chaffer, the CEO of Lifecycle Software, which provides support systems for network operators.
"By designing infrastructure that can be repurposed for other community uses postevent, and implementing green technologies and sustainable practices," Chaffer said. He added that this approach gives large sporting event organizers the ability "to minimize the environmental impact of event-triggered infrastructure projects."