Is Olympic sustainability just a well-branded illusion?

This commentary critically examines the International Olympic Committee’s sustainability claims, questioning whether they reflect genuine environmental commitment or strategic greenwashing. As the IOC pledged to be climate positive by 2024, critics argue that its sustainability rhetoric often outpaces reality, with many recent Games falling short of environmental promises. The article notably reports on a longitudinal study covering 16 Games from 1992 to 2020 showing that during that period, the Olympic Games achieved ‘medium’ sustainability marks, earning 48 out of 100 points on the nine-indicator scale that the authors constructed.

The commentary highlights specific failures, like untreated sewage in Rio, deforestation in Pyeongchang, and shallow follow-through in Fukushima, to challenge the integrity of official narratives. The authors claim that Olympic organizers routinely make ambitious green claims that serve short-term interests, such as winning public support during bid phases, while delivering little environmental progress in practice. These patterns support the argument that Olympic sustainability is often a form of greenwashing that obscures deeper social and ecological harm.

Overall, this opinion piece signals the importance of transparency, accountability, and measurable follow-through and not just branding, if sustainability is to be more than symbolic in mega-event planning.

CITE: Boykoff, J. (2021). Olympic sustainability or Olympian smokescreen. Nature Sustainability, 4(4), 294-295. Doi: 10.1038/s41893-021-00710-w

#Greenwashing #OlympicGames #Accountability #Sustainability