Tokyo 2020 ‘fake sustainability’: new Olympics report attracts heat from orangutan and rainforest activists
- Tokyo 2020’s ‘Sustainability Pre-Games Report’ sets impressive renewable energy targets but skimps on timber procurement as NGOs accuse organisers of dismissing complaints.
Organisers confirmed that the rescheduled opening ceremony would take place on July 23, 2021 – almost exactly one year after they were supposed to start. But while a year’s extra preparation may sound – to optimists – like a blessing in disguise, Tokyo 2020 has done little to appease the group of NGOs rallying for change in its sustainability methods.
Tokyo 2020’s newest “Sustainability Pre-Games Report” – released last Thursday in what is the second of three pledged sustainability reports – laid out impressive targets such as reaching “100 per cent renewable energy for electricity used to power the Games”, a “reduction of 280,000 tonnes of [carbon dioxide]” in its carbon footprint, and “65 per cent [of] waste during the Games [to be] reused or recycled”, among others.
Organisers also won nods of approval in their nationwide campaign to recycle phones for Olympic medals, and podiums to be made from public- and ocean-retrieved plastics. Tokyo 2020 even signed a letter of intent with the United Nations in 2018 to promote the contribution of sport to sustainable development.
But critics have for years questioned whether they will be “a truly sustainable Games” with “no-one left behind” – Muto’s goal. That “true” implies accordance with facts and “no-one left behind” means everyone is accounted for. The fact is, there have been blind eyes turned in its timber procurement process that is potentially leaving entire species behind.