ENGIE and the French Tennis Federation have teamed up for a more sustainable tournament. The Group has supported the French Open since 2014, in energy matters to help the tournament reduce its carbon footprint. Together, ENGIE and the French Open are promoting greener energy.
From 16 May to 5 June 2022, ENGIE is bringing its sponsorship to life by promoting its expertise in the supply of 100% green energy, innovation, sustainable development and solidarity projects supported by the ENGIE Foundation.
As a leader in low-carbon energy systems, ENGIE is helping the French Tennis Federation (FFT) reduce its carbon footprint and improve the energy efficiency of the facilities at the French Open. Since 2016, ENGIE has powered the stadium’s facilities with 100% renewable green energy with its “ENGIE green energy” offer. It guarantees that the FTT’s facilities (Roland-Garros Stadium, Porte Molitor National Training Centre and Jean-Bouin Stadium) are supplied with energy that is 100% guaranteed to come from renewable sources, mainly from hydro and solar generation.
At the same time, since 2011, ENGIE Solutions has been providing maintenance services for the technical facilities at the Roland-Garros stadium. During the tournament, ENGIE will be providing twice the amount of staff, who will be on hand 24/7 to ensure the comfort of both the players and fans. Our services will cover the management of air conditioning, ventilation and self-cooling systems.
To discover more about energy, ENGIE offers you an interactive animation on its stand located at Place des Mousquetaires.
In 2022, ENGIE is continuing to roll out HeliaFilm® flexible solar films from Heliatek, our industrial partner (an European manufacturer of organic solar films), which supply decarbonised electricity to different areas in the stadium.
This solution has been rolled out to three areas in the Roland-Garros stadium:
ENGIE’s low-carbon solar solutions, developed alongside Heliatek are based on a manufacturing process that is among the most efficient, easily adaptable to industry and with rapid economic viability. This technology makes it possible to install next-generation solar films on buildings with roofs that are not suitable for traditional solar panels or on very light structures made out of textile, etc.
On site, ENGIE is offering solutions to enable fans to remain connected throughout their day, with over forty fixed charging terminals, including five solar terminals for smartphones in the stadium. In addition, we are also providing visitors with around 500 portable charging disks (portable batteries with integrated charging cables), available from one of the many Information Desks within the stadium. Over 33,000 smartphones can be charged using this ENGIE service, making it the 2nd most used service by fans after the toilets.
In 2022, ENGIE is strengthening its partnership with the French Open and the French Tennis Federation by developing a Dark Mode for the tournament app. Increasingly offered on apps and operating systems, this solution provides significant energy savings and better energy efficiency. In fact, it takes less energy for a black pixel to illuminate the screen, making it possible to reduce the battery percentage used by the screen by 63%.
By using the dark mode feature, the 800,000 users of the French Open app will contribute to directly reducing its environmental impact.
At the French Open’s traditional “Children’s Day” on 21 May, ENGIE will give tennis fans the opportunity to play on one of the tournament’s official courts.
Among them, 200 children from the Fête Le Mur association, established by Yannick Noah, which the ENGIE Foundation has supported for 23 years, will show off their best moves on the tournament’s clay courts. This year, the children’s day will take place on Saturday 21 May.
Since 1999, the ENGIE Foundation has supported the “Fête le Mur” association, which provides activities in priority education zones thanks to the installation, at the foot of apartment blocks, of tennis courts and training walls so that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds can thrive by playing tennis. This association is present at the heart of around thirty disadvantaged neighbourhoods in France.
The Group also sponsors women’s tennis in France and has supported its development for the past 30 years. In order to contribute to the vitality of the women’s tennis circuit in France, the Group has developed the “ENGIE OPEN” label. In just over ten years, this label has enabled French female hopefuls to compete against the best foreign players in their category and to find their voice in their own country.
