“Paris 2024 has very strong ambitions, by offering Games open to the world, to the future, that’s what brings us together. Director of the Olympic and Paralympic Games at Coca-Cola, Claire Revenu announced this Tuesday, September 13 the main challenges of the partnership between the American brand and the Paris Olympics. Environmental issues in particular, the company that will supply the drinks during the Games intends to considerably reduce its carbon footprint.
Top sponsor of the Games – as a partner of the International Olympic Committee – Coca-Cola has extended its support by becoming the official sponsor of the torch relay (just like two other sponsors, BPCE and another, under negotiation). “We have been partners of the torch relay for 30 years and the Atlanta Games, recalls Claire Revenu. It is for us a symbol of sharing, of transmission. As such, the soda brand has decided to allow 1,000 young people to become torchbearers. “We want to give them access to the Olympic movement,” continues Claire Revenu.
Launch of a major campaign
Next summer, a major campaign will be launched, via the various Coca-Cola brands. “The torch relay has a real popular dimension, insists Tony Estanguet, head of the Games organizing committee. It’s a way to meet the French people so that the magic of the Games can operate. Coca-Cola will give a social aspect to its program via a partnership with “sport dans la ville. 200 young people from underprivileged neighborhoods will thus be offered by Coca-Cola, training around integration through sport. The brand will also offer places to young people to attend competitions.
Reducing the carbon footprint by more than half, offering a waste-free world by collecting every can or bottle, reducing the weight of packaging… Coca-Cola is showing its ambitions for the coming years. “Paris 2024 will allow us to speed them up,” says Claire Revenu. Especially since Paris 2024 plans to organize the “most sustainable Games in history”. As top sponsor, Coca Cola will supply all non-alcoholic beverages (water, soda, tea, etc.) during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. These will be served in reusable and returnable cups. Fountains will also be in place, “with the challenge of installing them in the open air, under sometimes high temperatures”, we explain at Coca-Cola.
Tests are currently being carried out, in particular to match consumer tastes: more or less aromas, more or less bubbles. The returnable glass will also make a comeback (in 2022, all the brand’s drinks will be available in a bottle format). On the site where the deployment of glass bottles will not be possible, drinks will be distributed in fully recycled plastic bottles.