With a little over a year to go until the start of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Organising Committee is putting into practice plans that have been in place since October 2009, when Rio de Janeiro won the right to host the events.

Now that the construction of the competition venues is entering the final stretch, with a series of test events planned in the following months, the mega-operation that is the supply side of Rio 2016 is entering its most intensive phase yet. Of the almost 30 million items needed ahead of the Games, around 85% will be purchased by December 2015.

“We’re moving the market and we’ve started requesting bids with advanced environmental and social practices,” Tania Braga, the general manager of sustainability and legacy, said at an event that took place this Thursday (14 May) in São Paulo.

Combined, the Olympic and Paralympic Games will bring together the same number of people as 65 World Championships, in just over a month and a half. As a result, the planning numbers of the Organizing Committee are staggering. In terms of sporting equipment alone, there will be over a million pieces. To feed the athletes, delegates and workforce of the Games, some 14 million meals need to be prepared, equivalent to over six thousand tonnes of food. Added to this are all the other pieces of equipment, material and transport, including horses(!), needed for a successful Games.

To deal with the scale of this demand, the Organising Committee is contracting more than 2,500 suppliers, enabling small, medium-sized and large Brazilian firms from different parts of the economy to bid for business. There is even a training programme available for potential suppliers, offered in partnership with Sebrae.

The procurement process of the Rio 2016 Committee is guided by a Sustainable Supply Chain, which includes various initiatives to promote sustainability, such as the recycling of material, the preservation of the environment, the careful use of water and energy, the monitoring of work practices and the development of the local market. All of these criteria, as well as price and quality, will be taken into account with each supplier.

“We have published guidelines and we are organising workshops to help suppliers with their training, company diversity and waste management plans,” Tania Braga said

“The committee has been very active in the preparation of the market for this challenge,” said João Saravia, the general manager of supplies, who was also at the event

The Committee’s procurement process, the progress of suppliers’ bids and the registration process are all available via the supply chain portal on the Portuguese-language Rio 2016 website.