ENGIE and the French Tennis Federation are playing doubles to make the tournament more environmentally friendly. The Group has been providing energy management support to the French Open since 2014, to help reduce its carbon footprint. Together, ENGIE and the French Open (Roland-Garros) are giving an Advantage to greener energy.
From 22 May to 11 June 2023 (main draw as from 28 May), ENGIE is bringing its partnership to life by supporting the FFT in the decarbonisation of the French Open (100% green energy) and by promoting 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) to reduce its carbon footprint and improve the energy efficiency of infrastructure at the Roland Garros stadium. Since 2016, ENGIE has been supplying the stadium facilities with renewable 100% green electricity through its “ENGIE green electricity” offer. It pledges that FTT facilities (Roland Garros Stadium, Porte Molitor National Training Centre and Jean Bouin Stadium) will be supplied with electricity guaranteed to be of 100% renewable origin, mainly from hydropower and solar power generation.
At the same time, ENGIE Solutions has been ensuring the upkeep and maintenance of technical facilities at the Roland Garros stadium since 2011. ENGIE’s on-site teams will be doubled during the tournament, present 24/7 to ensure the comfort of competitors and spectators alike. The services they provide include the management of air conditioning, ventilation and auto-refrigeration systems.
For those who want to learn more about energy, ENGIE is hosting an educational event on its stand located in Place des Mousquetaires.
In 2023, ENGIE is continuing to deploy HeliaFilm® flexible photovoltaic films from our industrial partner Heliatek (a European manufacturer of organic photovoltaic films), which will supply various areas of the stadium with low-carbon electricity.
This solution is currently deployed in three areas within the Roland Garros stadium:
ENGIE’s low-carbon solar solutions, developed with Heliatek, are based on a production process that is among the most efficient, the easiest to industrialise and the quickest to break even. Using this technology, new-generation photovoltaic films can be installed on buildings with roofs that are not suitable for conventional solar panels or on very light structures such as textiles, for example.
In the stadium, ENGIE offers spectators solutions to keep them connected throughout the day, with more than forty fixed charging stations, including five solar-powered stations for smartphones. In addition, ENGIE is also providing more than 500 portable smartphone chargers (batteries with integrated charging cables) that can be picked up from one of the many Information Kiosks in the stadium. More than 30,000 smartphones are recharged during each edition of the tournament through this service offered by ENGIE, making it the most popular spectator service after the toilets.
After the spectator application, rolandgarros.com now offers a Dark Mode function thanks to ENGIE
Since 2022, ENGIE has been strengthening its partnership with the French Open and the French Tennis Federation by developing a Dark Mode for the tournament’s mobile app. Found increasingly in apps and operating systems, this solution provides significant energy savings and improves energy efficiency. A black pixel uses less energy to light up the screen, thus reducing battery consumption by the screen by 63%.
Through the Dark Mode function, the 800,000 users of the Roland-Garros app will contribute to directly reducing their environmental impact.
In 2023, the tournament’s official website, rolandgarros.com, is also offering Dark Mode with ENGIE’s help.
On the occasion of the traditional solidarity day on 27 May, the day before the start of the main draw, this year renamed “Yannick Noah Day”, ENGIE is putting on a dream event: “Come and play on the Roland-Garros courts!” with the chance to play on one of the official tournament courts. On this occasion, ENGIE is inviting young tennis fans to exchange a few balls on the Roland-Garros clay courts.
Among them, more than 300 children from Fête Le Mur, an association created by Yannick Noah that the ENGIE Foundation has been supporting for 24 years, will come and play on the tournament’s clay courts.
Since 1999, the ENGIE Foundation has been supporting Fête le Mur, which contributes to the life of priority education zones by installing tennis courts and training walls at the foot of buildings, so that young people from underprivileged backgrounds can develop their skills by playing tennis. The association works in around thirty underprivileged neighbourhoods in France.
Green teams make spectators aware of environmental and renewable energy challenges:
Throughout the tournament fortnight, ENGIE is supporting the FFT with the deployment of its green teams. They pass through the stadium to make spectators aware of sustainable development and environmentally friendly gestures by presenting the emblematic actions carried out in a fun way. Equipped with tablets, they invite spectators to answer an environmental quiz, with the chance to win tickets to the 2024 edition of the tournament.
Beehives that contribute to biodiversity in the stadium:
Since 2015, the FFT and ENGIE have worked together to install several beehives around the Roland Garros stadium, to encourage biodiversity. This initiative contributes to maintaining local bee populations while also promoting the reproduction of certain plants through the bees’ role as pollinators. The profits from the sales of the honey pots are donated to Terre d’Impact, the FFT endowment fund, which supports tennis-related solidarity actions.
The Group is also a partner of women’s tennis in France and has been supporting its development for 31 years. The Group has created the ENGIE OPEN label to help develop a more dynamic women’s tennis circuit in France. As a partner in around fifteen women’s tournaments, ENGIE enables up-and-coming French women to compete against the best foreign players in their category in their own country.
Through all these actions, the Group is contributing to the organisation of the French Open by providing energy and technological solutions developed by ENGIE to make the event more environmentally friendly and reduce its CO2 emissions.
In collaboration with the FFT, ENGIE is helping to reduce the tournament’s carbon footprint while ensuring the energy efficiency of the infrastructure at the Roland Garros stadium.