Less is More: Tips for Hosting a Sustainable Conference
“If you would like a sustainable conference, don’t host a conference in the first place.” This was the first remark in an intense series of conversations about how to make this year’s Times Higher Education (THE) World Academic Summit a sustainable meeting. In agreeing to host the preeminent annual gathering on the higher education agenda, ETH Zurich has several ambitions. First, it is a unique opportunity to showcase the university and with THE, we aim for this to be the most innovative World Academic Summit to date. To create a sense of continuity with the upcoming meetings, we are pioneering new content, formats and experiences. At the same time, we want to infuse the meeting with a sense of “Swissness” and share with participants the values that make our university and our country unique.
As a public university, social responsibility is part of the very nature of our institution. The institutional strategy of the university contains several focus areas that address society’s grand challenges: Medicine, Data, Manufacturing, Critical Thinking, and Sustainability. With regard to sustainability ETH Zurich has a living commitment to sustainable development in all its four core areas of activity – Research, Teaching, Campus, and Dialog with Society. The university’s strategy includes a Sustainability pillar that encompasses leading research in the fields of energy, climate, food, and the future of cities. There is also an important focus on mitigating global risks and building resilient systems.
We believe that by leveraging the combined internal know-how of various units working on sustainability-related research, as well as by partnering with the relevant spin-off companies and local organisations that share our values, we can take a stand positioning ETH Zurich as an academic institution able to translate science into action. In envisioning a sustainable World Academic Summit, we hope to pass the baton to next year’s organisers with tried and tested ideas, and set the bar for how we think about our own future events internally.
In terms of the process, we began by researching best practices in sustainable conferencing globally. We decided to gather our internal expertise on this by reaching out to colleagues from the office of ETH Sustainability and the World Food System Center. Brainstorming led us to a targeted framework that we narrowed down to a selection of measures focusing on what is feasible and fits within our budget. The list below summarises the sustainability concept we are implementing for the conference.
Mobility
ETH Zurich is providing all external staff, participants and speakers with a free public transportation pass, enabling the use of trains, trams, buses and boats around the city for 3 days during the conference.
The public transportation measure is complemented by the Times Higher Education (THE) commitment to offset the carbon footprint of everyone flying in to Zurich for the conference.
Community Reforestation Project
THE is offsetting 476 tonnes of CO2 to contribute towards the carbon emissions generated by this event. Participants have been invited to contribute to the offsetting of their personal carbon footprint during the event by supporting the Natural Capital Partner’s sustainable projects such as this external pageCommunity Reforestation project in Uganda.
Carbon offsetting is compensating for carbon emissions which cannot be avoided through internal reductions, through the purchase of carbon credits helping sustainable projects around the world. This project helps 6,000 farmers to improve financial security and build sustainable livelihoods through community based tree planting programmes.
The Community Reforestation follows Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. Those goals address the global challenges we face. The Community reforestation project in Uganda, that THE chose to support, delivers a number of sustainable development benefits including Action to combat climate change (Sustainable Development Goal 13),external pageGender Equality (SDG 5), external pageGood Health and Wellbeing (SDG3), external pageLife on Land (SDG 15), external pageDecent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8) , external pageQuality Education(SDG 4) external pageZero Hunger (SDG 2), external pageNo Poverty (SDG 1), and external pageClean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6).
Catering
We have asked potential suppliers to include in their proposals a suggestion of how they would integrate sustainability into their offering. The catering solutions selected for food and beverages during meals and networking breaks comes from an entirely vegetarian menu with locally grown and seasonally relevant offerings. In addition, the catering team will avoid using disposable plastic, paper, and glassware to minimize waste products.
Waste
Waste management is highlighted through the start-up KITRO whose team consists of talents from both ETH Zurich and EPFL. The team from KITRO will measure kitchen waste during the preparation of meals at the conference venue over the main two days of the programme. KITRO members will also be on hand to discuss the topic with participants and the results will be shared as part of the post-summit content pipeline.
Read the ETH Ambassadors' blog, Best of Both Worlds.
Accommodation & Venue
We encourage participants to walk from the conference hotel - located within walking distance of the venues - and to use their public transportation passes. Signage, communication and conference materials will highlight Zurich as a walkable city. Student ambassadors will also be on hand to help guide participants.
Onsite, ETH Zurich features several recycling stations. We will forego printed roll-ups and posters in favour of digital solutions and an app to display information throughout the space and the programme content.
Conference materials and gifts
Marketing collateral has been strictly limited to the digital space. All partners and sponsors have also agreed to go paperless to the extent possible, with recycled materials being privileged for any printed resources.
Communication with delegates takes place online via the Summit portal, email, and the THE app. In terms of gifts, we are supporting a local supplier for conference bags that are made out of recycled maps of Switzerland and speakers will receive Swiss reusable water bottles.
Overall, our desire to implement sustainable event management solutions has been met with suppliers and partners rising to the occasion to provide fresh and novel solutions. It has also been a balancing act trying to stay within budget without compromising on quality while at the same time adhering to various rules, regulations, and other logistical constraints.
Our recommendation to event organisers in academic institutions interested in hosting a sustainable conference? Plan ahead keeping solutions elegant, yet simple. Less really is more in the long run.