Conferences and events are not only about making new acquaintances and meeting face-to-face but also about exchanging knowledge, experiences and celebrating together. Preparations often take many days, and many decisions are to be made, starting with the form of the event, the programme and the location, to name but a few. If you know anything about climate protection and the environment, you surely know that each of these decisions involves greenhouse gas emissions. The carbon footprint is a part of our lives, so naturally, it is present at conferences and events. Show CO2 emissions of conferences and eventsThe exact level of greenhouse gas emissions, of course, varies. For example, the Glasgow COP26 climate conference, one of the most emissive climate summits ever,
emitted 102,500 tonnes of CO2. That’s about as much greenhouse gas as 8,000 English people emit in a year. By comparison, the emissions associated with COP25 in Madrid (2019) amounted to an estimated 51,101 tonnes of CO2 and COP21 in Paris (2015) to 43,000 tonnes. A study published in Nature Communications indicates that in 2017, more than 1.5 billion people in 180 countries attended a business event. The same study reads that the average carbon footprint of an event attendee is 3,000 kg of CO2. Individually these numbers may seem insignificant, but they add to sizable numbers. Carbon-neutral events – numbers are the pointThe good news is that these emissions can be reduced or even fully neutralised! But how to organise a carbon-neutral event? At TerGo, we first encourage you to lower your event’s carbon footprint as much as possible and then offset those emissions that could not be prevented. As a result, the event will have a neutral impact on the environment and a positive impact on its participants! That’s it in a nutshell. The process is a little more complicated in practice, but it can be structured around four steps:
Organise your carbon-neutral events with TerGo!Carbon-neutral events can be organised, whatever their size. For example, the world’s climate summits organisers have chosen such solutions. TerGo is implementing a similar project for the UNEP/GRID-Warsaw Centre. We are preparing a report summarising the carbon footprint of the Only One Earth conference organised to
celebrate World Environment Day, and we will offset its emissions using VERs (Verified Emissions Reduction). How do you create a carbon neutral event?The first step in creating a carbon neutral event is to identify all of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the event. Major emission sources include travel, energy consumed, paper and resource use and waste generation. By identifying any sources of emissions, they can be measured and mitigated.
What are the ways you can do to be carbon neutral?Here are 10 easy ways you can start making a difference:. Stop buying your water in plastic. ... . Incorporate walking or biking to some of your regular short-trip destinations. ... . Turn off lights and unplug devices when you're not using them. ... . Keep the tires on your car properly inflated and get regular tune-ups.. What are carbon neutral activities?A carbon neutral activity is one that has a carbon footprint of zero. Some activities which produce a lot of greenhouse gases are sometimes linked to others which reduce the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as switching land over to growing trees.
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