Unmasking the Greenwashing Legacy of Rio 2016

Renowned as the guardian of the Lungs of the Earth, Brazil vowed to eco-friendly initiatives to elevate its image during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

As the Olympic sailing backdrop, Guanabara Bay, glistened on television screens, promising the world a Brazil that was consistent in its commitment to environmental preservation.

Yet, beneath the rhythms of samba music and the vivid display of vibrant costumes seen by the world during the Opening Ceremony, the underlying reality was significantly more complex, and the country’s green ambitions started to look like hollow promises.

The sparkling broadcast promises concealed a different reality, and the legacy left behind was one of allegations of greenwashing.

Brazil saw the Games as an opportunity to showcase a sustainable façade of itself, one that had green infrastructure, restored habitats and clean rivers.

Ultimately, the Rio Olympic Games were more detrimental than beneficial, leaving the world with a narrative that was very different from the one Brazil intended to tell.

Under the guise of environmental legacy and soft power, the Rio Olympics revealed the gap between appearance and reality.

So, What is Soft Power?

The American political scientist Joseph Nye constructed the phrase in the 1980s to describe the capacity to draw people in rather than force them, a process that involves nations projecting their values, beliefs and cultures beyond national boundaries to promote compassion and enhance diplomatic ties.

Whilst hard power uses military and economic means to influence the behaviour or interests of other political bodies, soft power can influence others through appeal and persuasion rather than coercion.

“A country can achieve the desired results in world politics when other countries that admire its values, take it as an example, take care of prosperity and be open to everything, want to follow it."

The Olympics has carried a vision of global unity and peaceful competition, and has also served as a key platform for soft power due to its ability to attract a larger portion of the global audience. Thus, the Olympics are an ideal stage to showcase international cultures and promote shared values.

Mega-events in sports, such as the Olympic Games, have a natural appeal for public diplomacy and provide host countries with a unique chance to unite people in a celebration of universal ideas.

These events enable countries to leverage the global spotlight and recalibrate a nation’s global positioning, boost city branding, and attract foreign investment.

Although the Rio 2016 Olympic Games serve as a reminder that this goal is not always guaranteed, the Olmypic Games are frequently recognised as a catalyst for regional and national growth, offering long-term economic and social benefits for host countries.

“Winning hearts and minds” is at the heart of soft power strategy, and has been used since the 1950s when the British colonial authorities in Malaya took steps to win the trust and loyalty of rural Malayans.

This is how soft power works: by winning the trust and loyalty of others without the use of hard power.

Winning hearts and minds was a central goal for Brazil when hosting the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Click the Video to Watch the Rio 2016 Olympic Game Highlights

Brazil tried to accomplish this by showcasing not only the vibrant urban life of Rio de Janeiro but also the natural treasures of Brazil, from the lush Amazon rainforests to the iconic bays and white sands.

Through this display, Brazil hoped to project an image of sustainable growth and environmental responsibility, which in return, would attract admiration and investments worldwide.

Soft Power Ambitions: Brazil's Olympic Dream

Like many host nations, Brazil’s goal was to recalibrate its global image in front of a worldwide audience, and the Rio 2016 Games was the perfect place to do that.

However, it demands significant economic strength and national credibility, and unfortunately, the surrounding plethora of challenges in Brazil at the time obscured the goals that would have been accomplished by soft power.

The Olympics in Brazil were anticipated to boost tourism, enhance Brazil's international image, and leave behind a legacy of improved public safety, new job opportunities, and a more integrated public transport system along with urban development.

When Rio was awarded the Games in 2009, Brazil's economy flourished, but as the event approached, the nation's economic situation worsened and was frowned upon to imagine the government pouring billions of dollars into the event rather than its communities.

Brazil had entered its third consecutive year of recession, described as 'the worst since the 1930s'. This resulted in reduced funding for large-scale events like the Olympics.

Click the Video to See How Soft Power Attempts Have Affected Brazil.

The controversies surrounding the Rio Games negatively impacted Brazil’s international image compared to other host cities like London and Sydney; the anticipated benefits of promoting the city for tourism and international business failed to materialise.

Brazil had aimed to use the Olympics to showcase its emerging role on the world stage, yet, less than two months after the closing ceremony, Carlos Arthur Nuzman, the then-president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, was arrested, casting a shadow over the promises of transparency and progress.

The allegations against the former president raised questions about whether the selection process was genuinely fair or manipulated for financial gain.

The Nuzman scandal was a component of a larger trend of corruption that afflicted Brazil’s corporate and government spheres during that time, with reports stating that the corruption stretched beyond the bidding process to the construction projects, where misallocated funds and inflated budgets increased Brazil’s debt.

As further Olympic scandals came to light, the Games became a symbol of lost chances for Brazil, tainted by a system that put private benefits ahead of general welfare.

The severe recession and ongoing corruption probes had weakened Brazil’s soft power in the very short run.

As a result, the Olympics did not have a lasting effect on the Brazilian economy, but temporarily created jobs, minimal GDP growth, boosted local tourism and benefited relative businesses.

The Games were scarred by scandals and left a city, starkly divided by rich and poor, pretty much as it was with a few cosmetic changes.

“The 2016 Rio Olympics were supposed to be the second of a one-two punch announcing Brazil’s arrival as a world power through dominance."

While Brazil aimed to project soft power on a global stage, the political and economic instability that shadowed the Games undercut these aspirations; instead of fostering growth and development, the legacy of the Rio Games remains under economic strain.

Greenwashing: The Promises vs. The Reality

The broader difficulties of hosting the Games in Rio were just the tip of the iceberg.

Accusations of greenwashing became the next chapter in Rio's Olympic story, retaining the city in the worldwide spotlight, but for reasons that underlined failings rather than accomplishments.

Courtney Lindwall defines 'greenwashing' as the “practice that involves making false or misleading statements about the environmental benefits of a product or practice and can be a way for companies to continue or expand their polluting as well as related harmful behaviours.”

Brazil saw hosting the Olympics as an opportunity to showcase sustainable prosperity, but Rio 2016 turned out to be the complete opposite – a mega-event shrouded in environmental responsibility but tainted by broken promises and a polluted legacy.

The Rio Olympics were dubbed a “Green Games for a Blue Planet” and there were plenty of well-published efforts to reduce the Games’ environmental impact.

The Olympic bid pledged that the 2016 Games would “accelerate several important environmental projects bringing direct benefits to local communities including regeneration of urban areas, air quality improvement and reduced consumption of non-renewable natural resources."

During the Games, Brazil made eco-friendly choices to prove to the world that they were serious about their impact on the environment, with medals being made from recycled material and every athlete being allowed to plant a tree as part of the Games, a bid to offset its 3.6-million-ton carbon footprint.

Rio’s waters were found to contain viruses up to 1.7 million more times hazardous than a beach in the United States, with visitors being advised “not to put their heads underwater.”

For the communities surrounding the Olympic Village, the Brazilian government pledged to clean up 80% of Guanabara Bay, an area so polluted, that the locals had named it “The Open Sewer.”

Once a jewel of Rio’s coastline, the bay had become an eyesore by untreated sewage, transforming its waters a murky black, far from the tropical blues and greens one would expect to see.

 Guanabara Bay, Rio, Brazil

In an attempt to fix the pollution problem, Rio’s response was to install 17 “eco barriers” to trap trash from floating into the bay, with the initiative not only aiming to make the waters suitable to be used as a venue during the Games but to also create a cleaner and safer environment for the surrounding Brazilian communities.

The government had also invested heavily in infrastructure projects, which were not only meant to reinvent struggling neighbourhoods after the Games were finished but to also showcase the sustainable legacy Brazil aspired to leave behind.

With the nation learning from previous infrastructure mistakes, one of the key goals for Rio 2016 was to avoid creating ‘white elephant’ structures, which are scattered all over the country from previous sporting events that Brazil had hosted, with the 2014 World Cup being one of the events to leave behind grand and misused stadiums and venues.

With officials promoting it as a "Green Games for a Blue Planet," some positive strides happened, including infrastructure improvements, waste management initiatives and carbon offsetting efforts, as reported by the IOC (International Olympic Committee).

"The Organising Committee worked at every level - local, national and international - to ensure that environmental sustainability standards were fully incorporated in the planning and delivery of the Games."

The IOC also noted that "nine kilometres of river courses were recovered through regeneration of banks and drainage" as one of the positive changes that had occurred as a result of hosting the Olympics.

In reality, this seems like something that is far from the truth.

Jules Boykoff, former professional football player turned professor in politics, said that the organisers “did not live up to their promises and the Rio Olympics could go down as the most green-washed games in the history of the Olympics.

“With regards to cleaning up the water and the planting of trees, the people of Rio absolutely got short-changed on the environment front. The wider issues are those that are important to the everyday people of the Olympic city.”

The dream of depolluting Guanabara Bay has now been overshadowed by the grim reality that the waters may be worse than they were before Rio was put on the global stage.

Eight years after the Olympic spotlight faded on South America’s Giant, the bay’s murky waters still tell a story of broken promises, as floating debris and untreated sewage continues to overtake the bay’s once-pristine shores.

The pollution of the once-glistening Guanabara Bay has become so severe that, in recent years, local fishermen have taken it upon themselves to clean the waters.

With the declining population of fish in the waters, caused by the worsening of the conditions, many locals are watching their livelihoods struggle, forcing the communities to confront the environmental devastation firsthand.

Just as the waters of the bays continued to be choked with pollution, despite promises of restoration, the plans for extensive reforestation also fell short, revealing a larger trend of broken environmental promises.

The ‘Seeds of Hope’ initiative, a procession meant to plant 24 million Brazilian tree seedlings to offset carbon emissions from the Games, remains a distant memory and promise.

Click the Video to Learn More About the Local Fishermen in Guanabara Bay.

Instead of flourishing the soils of Rio, the seedlings sit confined to pots on a farm about 60 miles away from The Carnival Capital.

Of the 12,000 trees that were planted in the Olympic Park and its surroundings, many now struggle to survive due to neglect, leaving the world waiting for a green legacy that never took root.

"If you take the Olympic opening event, it was important messaging. The whole world was watching, and that is great to frame the issue in this way, but the city did not get more sustainable because of the Olympic Games – not at all."

While the promises of planting trees to offset carbon emissions from the Games were left unaccomplished, the echoes of broken commitments extended once again.

Where athletes once stood on podiums to celebrate their athletic success, and where the cheers of crowds once echoed, silence now lingers.

Click the Video to Learn More About the Conditions of the Maracanã Stadium Six Months After the Games

Out of the 27 venues built with visions of leaving a legacy and lasting impact, only 15 have been used for events post-Games, while others stand as derelict skeletons, remnants of what was once a body of sportsmanship and global unity.

Despite Brazil spending at least $13 billion to organise the Games, the residents of Rio continue to await the fulfilment of multiple environmental commitments made more than a decade ago, resulting in an environmental crisis and a disillusioned populace.

However, as of earlier this year, a glimmer of hope has started to emerge along the forgotten waters of Barra and Jacarepaguá lagoons.

Click the Video to Learn More About the Restorations

In a bid to reverse the years of neglect, private concessionaires have taken up the task of breathing life back into these aquatic habitats.

Nevertheless, the project is not without challenges, with the lagoons being victims of long-standing ecosystem degradation, and the absence of solid watershed management has caused their decline.

Lucas Arrosti, Igua’s operational director, told AP News: “It’s a medium- to long-term path. We still can’t evaluate or verify any gains, because all these actions need to be implemented.

“Only after they’re completed will we start to see significant changes in water quality.”

Dancing for Change: The Silent Protest of David Katoatau

Amid the ambitious but unfulfilled promises of the Rio Olympics, the story of David Katoatau offered an inspiring contrast.

Known for his dancing celebration, the weightlifter became a viral sensation during the Games.

Click the Link to Watch David Katoatau's Viral Dance Protest

His gestures held a serious purpose, which was drawing global attention to the effects of climate change on his homeland, Kiribati; a postcard paradise, that will be the first country swallowed up by the sea as a result of climate change.

Katoatau told The Guardian: “I want to see a future for Kiribati and our youth, I don’t want my country to disappear.

“You can see the impact of climate change here with your own eyes before the sea was further down the beach, now it comes up close to my house. There is water on both sides, so if the tide becomes much higher there will be no land left.

“I beg the countries of the world to see what is happening in Kiribati. The simple truth is that we do not have the resources to save ourselves, we will be the first to go. I hope the world is listening. I hope someone comes to help my country. We are suffering.”

The tale of Katoatau is a prime example of how effectively the Olympics can serve as an advocate for environmental change, with Katoatau’s activities not only an appeal to protect his home but juxtaposed to the insufficient grand initiatives of the Rio Games.

His advocacy emphasised the necessity of true environmental responsibility rather than token gestures.

The contradiction between Katoatau’s earnest plea and the organisers’ promises offers a more important lesson for future Olympic hosts.

Although the Games offer a platform for global influence, a sincere commitment to environmental sustainability is necessary to prevent accusations of greenwashing.

Katoatau's activism serves as a reminder that the true legacy of the Olympics lies not only in infrastructure or temporary boosts to tourism but in lasting actions that genuinely benefit both local and global communities.

Reflecting on Rio: The Lessons Left Behind

A legacy of sustainability and cultural celebration was promised by the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, but the following events showed a harsh reality where environmental care was overshadowed by greenwashing.

Brazil's efforts to highlight its stunning natural beauty have inadvertently revealed a sombre narrative of missed chances to uplift the lives of its most vulnerable populations.

This tale, intertwined with abandoned locations and contaminated waters, paints a complex picture of unmet potential.

It is clear that the most vulnerable cannot bear the burden of the struggle for a sustainable future, as nations like Kiribati continue to suffer from the effects of climate change, showing that the environmental empty promises Brazil left behind could have helped the audiences they were trying to persuade.

Global leaders must acknowledge real action, not just symbolic words that make promises they cannot keep.

It is necessary to address the climate problem and safeguard the place we all call home, no matter where in the world we all are.

In the same way that the Olympic Games unite people around the world, we must also unite to create a lasting legacy that embodies our dedication to preserving the environment, one that will last long after the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games.