Building a nature-positive legacy: An investigation of biomimetic strategies and innovations for Olympic legacy infrastructure

The Olympic and Paralympic Games are seen as opportunities to promote sustainable development in the host region, often promising investments that can lead to lasting benefits known as the Olympic legacy. Infrastructure is key to creating this sustainable legacy. Amid growing urgency over planetary crises like climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, recent Games editions have focused more on the environmental impact of hosting such a large event.

This research aims to improve the sustainability and environmental impact of infrastructure built for the Olympics, with a focus on the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. It will develop a new framework based on biomimicry, the practice of learning from and imitating nature to solve complex problems. This framework will help incorporate nature-positive elements into the designs of Olympic infrastructure projects and provide a standard way to evaluate their sustainability.