WSP Canada (WSP) is announcing a unique partnership with Canadian freestyle skier and Olympic medalist Marion Thénault, which is focused on supporting her dreams of returning to the Olympics in 2026, becoming an engineer and being one of Canada’s first carbon-neutral athletes.
Currently studying to become an aerospace engineer at Montreal’s Concordia University, Thénault will work alongside members of WSP Canada’s Earth and Environment team to determine the carbon footprint of her freestyle skiing activities as she travels around the world to events on the World Cup circuit.
WSP’s climate change experts will quantify the emissions associated with her activities, look for ways to reduce this footprint, and find solutions to offset her actions.
The goal of this innovative partnership?
Marion Thénault is an emerging star in freestyle skiing, and was a member of the 2022 Canadian Olympic team in Beijing, where she won bronze as a member of the mixed aerials team. In 2020-21, she won the FIS Freestyle Rookie of the Year. She has been a member of the national team since 2018. She is currently studying aerospace engineering at Concordia University. Image Credit: Canadian Olympic Committee.
WSP wants to support Marion in developing a plan to reduce the emissions generated in her journey to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. As part of this process, Thénault will develop a better understanding of the environmental cost of athletic competition and the financial cost of offsetting the emissions generated during her Olympic pursuit.
“This partnership with Marion demonstrates the extent of WSP’s expertise and our ability to innovate. It is a unique opportunity to support a young woman in the development of her career, both as an athlete and as an engineer,” declared Marie-Claude Dumas, president and CEO of WSP Canada.
“Working with Marion, we’ll be able to deliver practical solutions for offsetting the emissions that come with being a high-performance athlete travelling the world for competitions,” explained Geneviève Brin, director of Climate Change, Resilience and Sustainability at WSP Canada.
“We hope that what she learns in becoming a carbon neutral athlete will be information that she can share with, and be adopted by, Olympic competitors around the world.” said Olivier Joyal, executive vice president of Strategy and Execution, Earth and Environment, WSP Canada.
“I am very excited to work with WSP to try and become one of Canada’s first carbon-neutral Olympian,” said Thénault. “Travelling around the world comes with an environmental impact, one that we need to reduce to minimize the impact of climate change. Hopefully the research we are doing will help athletes around the world take action to reduce their carbon footprint.”
Over the next four years, both WSP and Thénault will provide updates on the journey to carbon neutrality on their respective social media channels.
Featured image credit: Concordia University.
