In bygone days, the San Pedro de la Paz nature sanctuary in Chile’s Biobío region didn’t strike locals as a sports venue.

But that didn’t detract Alejandro Bacot, legacy and sustainability deputy director of Santiago 2023, from the idea of hosting rowing, canoeing and kayaking events on the lake for the nineteenth edition of the Pan American Games.

“It is an absolutely beautiful lake, so it had to be one of the most sustainable operations in the history of Chilean sporting events to make it happen,” Bacot describes to The Sustainability Report.

Rowing, canoeing and kayaking qualifications held in 2022 were positioned as sustainable test events. They incorporated state-of-the-art electric catamarans and generators, soundproof equipment, and a series of environmental education and training programs for volunteers, staff and the public, coordinated with the Regional Government and the Municipality of San Pedro de la Paz.

The Environmental Sciences Center (EULA) of the University of Concepción supplemented these efforts by carrying out studies of local flora and fauna. Bacot believes such partnerships with universities (Concepción was one of 12 universities that conducted 25 studies in collaboration with Santiago 2023’s organising committee) were “fundamental” to the Games’ success, as collecting the data within such a small organising committee was impossible.

After successfully preserving the sanctuary’s biodiversity during qualifications and consequently Santiago 2023 events, “now everyone involved is happy to host events there in the future,” Bacot declares, “especially the people who participated!”

In fact, approaching sustainability in such a holistic and collaborative manner – not only in natural venues like San Pedro de la Paz – encompassed the organising committee’s ambitious approach to the entire Americas’ competition, making Santiago 2023 the most environmentally minded Pan Am Games ever held.

From turmoil to green recovery

Held in October and November 2023, over 9,000 athletes participated in 39 Pan American and 17 Parapan American sports, joined by more than 17,000 volunteers, 1 million spectators and 200 million television viewers around the world.

Bacot acknowledges that the sheer size of Santiago 2023 made the small organising committee’s ambitions more daunting, and that’s without considering the tumult in Chile during the years preceding the event.

At the end of 2019, a polarised political environment and widespread discontent overshadowed the nation. The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic compounded these issues, creating socioeconomic repercussions that drastically affected many Chileans’ finances.

But, as part of Chile’s recovery plan for the pandemic, the Ministry of Environment committed 30% of additional resources from its public investment program to sustainable and green projects, reinforcing the country’s commitment to climate goals.

Before the onset of COVID-19, Chile’s energy transition strategy had already evolved towards green policies, driven by a combination of political support and continuing green tech innovation. In 2022, Chile became the world’s first nation to use sovereign debt (a US$2 billion sustainability-linked bond offering) to fund its long-term climate initiatives, geared towards increasing Chile’s use of renewable energy. The government recognised that support was required to achieve their target of converting 70% of the country’s total energy consumption to renewables by 2030.

Chileans support going green too. In a 2022 Yale Program for Climate Change Communication survey, 91% believed that climate change should be treated as a government priority. Chile’s metropolitan region is home to over 7 million people (40% of Chileans live in Santiago) who all face water access challenges as the country’s water deficit increases as a consequence of climate change.  

Santiago 2023’s organising committee therefore recognised the monumental opportunity presented by the event to unite Chileans around the nation’s green agenda. Despite tickets being as low as 5 CLP (Chilean peso) for athletics, Bacot expresses his amazement that most events across the Games were full capacity. “It was a completely different environment for families with children than the environment of soccer,” which in Chile has violent connotations.

Bacot is transparent that many people working on behalf of Santiago 2023 had limited understanding of sustainability concepts. In collaboration with the communications team, the organising committee sought to improve this in the lead-up to the Games by preparing a calendar of key dates where different environmental awareness and education campaigns were developed, an example being World Water Day on March 22^nd to commemorate the measures adopted in the San Pedro de la Paz nature sanctuary.

Bacot believes the best ambassadors to spread Santiago 2023’s sustainability agenda to the wider public, however, were participating athletes: “They didn’t need to show an explicit understanding of sustainability to make sustainable choices, like using environmentally friendly transport.”

For instance, the athlete village was located in Cerrilos, a suburb in southwest Santiago, meaning line six of the subway was the quickest route to the national stadium in the east of the city. According to Bacot, over 5,000 athletes travelled to the stadium on line six for the opening ceremony. After Lucas Nervi won gold for Chile in discus, he travelled back to the athlete village on the subway and received an ovation from fellow passengers.

Closing the loop

Through evolving legislation, long-term funding and financial support from both public and private entities, Chile is edging towards a circular economy system. A significant milestone in this process was establishing the Circular Economy Office in the Ministry of the Environment in 2018.

Previously, most of the waste generated by large events in Chile ended up in landfill. The entry into force of extended producer responsibility (EPR) law in Chile in 2016, however, obliges manufacturers of lubricant oils, electronic devices, batteries, containers and packaging, tyres, and small batteries to recover a percentage of these products at the end of their life cycle.

Miyuki Mabe, head of clean and waste at Santiago 2023, expresses how EPR offered a “great opportunity” to form the foundation of Santiago 2023’s waste management plan by inviting brands and sponsors to recover their waste.

Mabe’s clean and waste department ensured that supplier policy was clearly defined in each stage of the waste management plan, including the necessity for suppliers to declare how much waste they generate, what type of waste they generate and its final destination. Each supplier that signed a contract with Santiago 2023 agreed to comply with this policy and training was carried out by the clean and waste department to ensure that suppliers could fulfil this promise.

After establishing 56 recycling points across competition, non-competition and training venues, appropriate EPR waste was separated and delivered to the brands and sponsors that produced it. Under this “concept of responsibility”, Mabe claims that “strategic alliances” were established with sponsors and brands that had presence in the national Chilean market to produce circular economy campaigns aimed at the general public.

“I think it’s essential to understand that in the end, recyclable waste is raw material to generate the same or other products,” reminds Mabe, which includes making the most of opportunities – both fortunate and unfortunate ­– when they present themselves. On one hand, apartment units built in Cerrilos to house Santiago 2023’s athletes were sold to vulnerable families, allowing more than 6,000 people to live in high quality housing after the Games. On the other, Santiago 2023 organisers donated all the furniture used in the athlete village to those affected by fires in the Valparaíso region at the beginning of February.

In such ways, Santiago 2023 left an indelible mark on Chileans that will continue to reverberate, while the event’s successes make the prospect of an Olympic Games bid not only more alluring, but more achievable.

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