ROLAND-GARROS
20 May - 9 June 2024
© Christophe Guibbaud/FFTSpectator awareness
Throughout the fortnight, Roland Garros will be running an awareness campaign for the general public with videos, shown in the complex’s walkways, starring the players themselves.
The green teams will stroll around the stadium to raise spectator awareness with regard to eco-responsible behaviour and sustainable development. Equipped with tablets, they will invite visitors to take part in an eco-responsibility quiz, with tickets to the 2020 tournament up for grabs.
Sustainable food choices
In partnership with Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s Goodplanet foundation, the FFT is working with all the tournament’s restaurant owners and caterers on a sustainable three-year food plan designed to offer all tournament audiences products that are more environmentally friendly than ever and provide a necessary response to climate issues: certified, seasonal produce originating from short supply circuits, etc.
Reduction of the impact of transport
In 2018, 72.2% of spectators (54.9% in 2011) travelled to the stadium using transport that emitted little or no greenhouse gases: 60.6% used public transport and 11.6% used active mobility (on foot or by bicycle, for example). On the other hand, 21.1% came in their own car (with an average of 2.85 people on board) and 6.7% used transport such as taxis or chauffeur-driven vehicles.
Two electric mini buses (22 seats) will be in service this year, running between the Pelouse de Saint-Cloud car park and the Porte d’Auteuil.
Carpooling website: Roland Garros has made a carpooling website available to everyone involved with the tournament: www.covoiturage.fft.fr bringing drivers and passengers in contact with each other.
Reduction and re-use of waste
- An efficient system of waste separation is being implemented during the tournament, with 13 waste streams running to sorting and treatment centres. In 2018, 45% of tournament waste was recycled.
- Reusable cups: Ecocups have replaced disposable drinks cups. They require a €1 deposit and are offered to all spectators for coffee, cold drinks, wine and even champagne. Each year, they reduce the amount of cardboard required by the tournament by around two tonnes of non-recyclable cups.
- Bio-waste: a bio-waste (food and organic waste) management system is now used in all the organisation, media and player restaurants, as well as in the new Village. More than 45 tonnes of bio-waste was recycled in the form of worm compost after the 2018 tournament. In the space of five years, the amount of bio-waste collected at Roland-Garros has increased nearly 20-fold, from 2.6 tonnes in 2014 to 45.5 in 2018.
Energy
ENGIE: 100% renewable energy at Roland Garros
Since April 2016, the FFT has had an electricity supply contract for all of its sites (the National Training Centre, Jean-Bouin courts and Roland Garros) with Engie using 100% renewable energy.
This year, in addition to some of our mobile phone charging stations being powered by conventional solar panels, the FFT and ENGIE are trialling the use of innovative flexible green solar panels in two areas of the stadium complex. The aim is for them to be used more widely across the complex in the future.
The New Roland-Garros and its commitment to the environment
There has been a strong environmental slant to the Roland-Garros stadium complex modernisation process from the very start. In making its commitment a reality and in support of its integrated approach to sustainable development, the FFT applied for BREEAM certification for the entire historic area and achieved a “Very Good” rating. The most widely used sustainable construction standard in the world, BREEAM assesses the environmental performance of buildings.
In line with BREEAM certification, the modernisation project, which began in mid-October 2015, was conducted in accordance with a “green construction” charter. Under the terms of the charter, the contractors, Vinci Construction France, were obliged to fulfil its requirements in two different areas: the site and its surroundings, and the environment and local population.
The modernisation of the Roland-Garros stadium complex also complies with the City of Paris’ climate plan for new and extensively refurbished buildings. The project was put together with the aim of limiting its environmental impact in all aspects, particularly its usage.
This ambitious programme, implemented during the modernisation phase, will extend far beyond it. In rolling out the new stadium complex project, the FFT is breaking new ground in terms of sustainable development, with the Roland-Garros complex consuming less energy and water and treating waste more efficiently.
Biodiversity
Together, the City of Paris and the FFT have designed and implemented a project that is unique in the world, constructing modern greenhouses that provide a home for rare plant species, a place in which the people of Paris can take a stroll and relax, and a setting for a new tennis court.
Designed by the architect Marc Mimram, the greenhouses blend in seamlessly with the existing landscaped garden and the historic greenhouses designed by Jean-Camille Formigé, to which they pay tribute, while breathing new life into an area known as the botanic garden.
The project has also been made possible by the work of the City of Paris’ officers, who have used the new greenhouses to recreate the four biotopes of the four parts of the world from which the botanical collections originate: South America, Africa, south-east Asia and Australia. They have planted and maintain over 1,000 stunning plants comprising more than 500 species and varieties, many of them rare.
Monitoring on daily basis
The project embraces a concern for enhancing local biodiversity and the ecological role of the site. This led to the drafting of an environmental management plan by a professor from the National Natural History Museum, which was rolled out throughout the five-year modernisation project. Ecology has thus been central to certification during the course of the project, with awareness being raised and monitoring taking place on a daily basis.
The local fauna has also been preserved, with wildlife-friendly margins being created to provide links with the Bois de Boulogne and the city’s gardens. The species that taken up residence in these new areas, among them bullfinches, will not be disturbed and will be joined by other birds thanks to the habitats created in the complex, namely 25 nesting boxes and the creation of nesting areas on roofs.
The creation of insect hotels will attract a wide range of insect species to the site. Specifically adapted to the species already present on the site, these insect hotels will join the 21 bee hives that sit all year round on the roof of the Club des Loges and in the Village. As well as helping to preserve the local bee population, this initiative also has a part to play in plant reproduction thanks to the bee’s role as a pollinator.
Ecological diversity
Water management is one of the most important aspects of the project. The FFT has encouraged maximum inflow to the site, with an increase across open ground of over 37% and the revegetation of 50% of the roof terraces created, thus linking the environmental and water management strategies together to create locations where fauna and flora can flourish. The FFT has also installed underground tanks beneath thoroughfares and overground tanks in areas not accessible to the public.
Further enhancing the vegetal world at the expense of the mineral is the creation of a spaces open to the public outside competitions (panoramic lawns across the site, walkways lined with plants, a green Place des Mousquetaires, and landscape buffers). All trees of note have been preserved and a further 123 trees of nearly 40 different varieties planted, generating genuine ecological diversity.
The new site enhances the Bois de Boulogne Green Belt and encourages ecological connectivity with it, in line with the Paris Biodiversity Plan, which seeks to develop the capital’s Green and Blue Belts. These ecological corridors, which provide communication links for the city’s wild species, are vital to maintaining urban and peri-urban biodiversity.