The Summer Olympics are going strong until 11 August. While we cheer on our favourite athletes, we also have our eyes on the valuable work behind the scenes making the event successful, inclusive and sustainable.
Here are 3 ways Arctik has brought climate issues and solutions to the Olympic podium.
1. From sewage to swim-ready: The Seine’s transformation
The Seine River has been a central feature of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Public officials made a point of taking an inaugural dip in the waters before the Olympic triathlon swimmers dove in (originally scheduled for 28 July, the triathlon was postponed a few days due to pollution risks).
Efforts to make the Seine River safe for swimming started well before these photo ops and have involved a variety of stakeholders and initiatives. One of these, the Horizon 2020 project digital-water.city (DWC), played a crucial role in developing technologies and systems that have allowed experts to monitor the Seine in real time, determining if it is safe for swimming.
Digital water solutions in Paris from ARCTIK on Vimeo.
From 2019 to 2022, the DWC project worked with city officials, environmental agencies and technology providers to employ innovative water quality monitoring systems in Paris and 4 other European cities (Berlin, Copenhagen, Milan, Sofia). Arctik joined DWC to raise public awareness of the research outputs and benefits of sewage overspills in European cities. In addition to producing the video (above), we secured coverage in Euronews as well as the BBC, BBC World Service, Euractiv and various national public outlets.
Read this case study for further details on Arctik’s involvement in DWC.
2. EU Ecolabel-awarded brands on display
The Hamelin company, renowned for its Oxford handbooks, has launched a special edition notebook celebrating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
In line with their commitment to sustainability, the Hamelin Olympic-branded notebooks have the EU Ecolabel logo: ensuring that the product material and design process meet high environmental standards throughout their lifecycle, from production to disposal.
Arctik is helping raise awareness of the EU Ecolabel certification to help consumers in Europe make truly sustainable choices as well as encourage companies to apply for the licence for their goods and services.
You can read about Hamelin’s EU Ecolabel journey and a host of success stories from companies that have this esteemed certification.
More information on the EU Ecolabel is available on the official website.
3. Preparing for extreme heat
In anticipation of the Paris Olympic Games, the Impetus4Change (I4C) project released new data based on an analysis of high-resolution climate maps of Paris for 2014, 2024 and 2044. This analysis examines the impact of extreme summer heat, projecting the magnitudes of heatwaves across 335 simulated events at different levels of future warming.
The I4C project will run until 2026, and as a Work Package Lead, Arctik has a critical role to play in making complex climate mapping, data resources and analysis more accessible and understandable for a wider audience. This type of analysis is essential for policymakers and urban planners, not just in Paris but any city looking to mitigate the impact of extreme heat on urban populations.
Learn more about the I4C project and its efforts to make science-based climate information and services more available to European cities and regions.