All seafood served at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will be certified as sustainably wild caught and responsibly farmed, according to an agreement signed yesterday.

 

According to the memorandums of understanding (MOUs) between the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), onlysustainable seafood will be served to the athletes, officials, press and at the onsite restaurants, representing some 14 millions meals during the course of the games.

 

The MOUs describe how Rio 2016 will prioritize local certifiedseafood from the State of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil. Rio 2016 will also support MSC and ASC to promote certified seafood within Brazil and promote sustainable education. The MOUs remain in effect until June 1, 2017.

 

In the Rio Games’ other sustainability initiatives, Swiss architectural and design firm Rafaa has proposed building a345-foot solar tower and urban waterfall that will provide power to the city of Rio de Janeiro during the 2016 Games.

 

Sochi 2014 will be the first Olympic Games to offset 100 percent of the estimated travel footprint associated with spectators and media, amounting to 160,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions, according to Olympic partner Dow Chemical, which is implementing energy efficient and low-carbon technologies to mitigate the event’s carbon footprint.