Timber was already a front running material for the range of building and other park developments for the low environmental impact 2024 Paris Olympics. Now Games projects will feature tropical timber too after industry intervention helped persuade delivery authority Solideo to have a change of heart over its initial near 100% ban on using it.

The French timber sector has put in a major lobbying effort to make Games developments a showcase for use of wood structurally and in a wide variety of other applications in arenas, the athletes’ village and Olympics park landscaping; everything from brise soleils, to bridges, benches and boardwalks.

Under the auspices of industry umbrella body France-Bois Forêt it set up France Bois 2024 to promote timber as the prime construction and building products material for what is being billed as an all-time low carbon Games. Its role has also been to mobilise the French timber sector to work with architects, designers and contractors to make the technical and environmental case for wood in project tenders.

Against this backdrop, Solideo’s decision to bar the use of wood of ‘exotic and boreal origins outside the EU’, except for exceptional reasons, such as fire safety, led to an industry outcry.

A range of bodies, including French timber trade association Le Commerce du Bois, the International Tropical Timber Technical Association (ATIBT), Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition and International Tropical Timber Organisation, sent a letter to the delivery authority. They said the ban ran contrary to the Games’ environmental ethos. It threatened to undermine public and professional confidence in tropical timber and the efforts of government and industry in supplier countries, supported by the EU authorities, trade and other stakeholders to establish timber legality assurance systems and support uptake of certified sustainable forest management in the tropics.

“Promoting sustainable management means giving value to forests and thus conserving them,” said the letter’s signatories “Certified companies deserve to be known and recognised by all for their environmental and social achievements.”

They also quoted France’s own Ministry of Ecological Transition which stated that “if tropical timbers are boycotted, tropical forests lose their capacity to generate foreign currency. There is then strong pressure to clear them for agriculture”.

“The Olympic Games are a universal event recognising diversity and excellence,” the letter concluded. “It would be unfair to stigmatise those involved in the sustainable management of tropical and boreal forests who are making considerable efforts in terms of biodiversity conservation and economic and social development.”

Earlier this year, the ATIBT held further talks with Solideo and the Mayor of Paris and general manager Benoît Jobbé-Duval said after he was “hopeful of a positive outcome”. ATIBT announced that this had duly resulted and the tropical ban was dropped on June 16. Subsequently a tender was put out for the supply of 4,400m2 of tali for decking and barriers across the Olympic park.

The ATIBT said it wished Solideo had changed its mind earlier so tropical wood could have been considered in the construction of the athletes’ village and other major Games buildings. But it welcomed the move.

“We always said exclusion of certified tropical timber from Olympics works was unjustified and are delighted about the new perspective on its use for exterior facilities,” said Mr Jobbé-Duval.

Provisos on the Games’ use of tropical timber are that it has to be FSC-certified and backed by chain of custody certification and life cycle analysis data. Part of the projects it is used for must also use recycled timber.

According to France Bois 2024, the latest tally on overall timber use at the Olympics is:

  • 19,000m3 in the athletes’ village, comprised of wood-structured buildings with combined floor space of 80,000m2 and timber facades on buildings with 200,000m2 total floor space.
  • 10,000m3 in arenas and other Games developments. That includes the 10,000m2 Grand Palais Éphémère judo and wrestling stadium and the Aquatics Centre, which both feature wood as a prime structural element, plus temporary structures, such as the Le Bourget broadcast centre, which features 5,000m2 of wood flooring.