Academia's Role in Climate Action: Enhancing Awareness and Reducing Environmental Impact of Academic Events

Abstract

A clean environment is vital for both population health and the well-being of our planet (Brusseau et al., 2019). In-person gatherings, like academic conferences, significantly contribute to carbon emissions that harm the environment, highlighting the importance of finding opportunities to reduce these emissions (Tao et al., 2021). Cognizant of the environmental cost of our annual national in-person research team gathering, our team sought to minimize the environmental impact of our 2023 gathering while raising awareness among team members. Our actions included using reusable tableware, composting food waste, and hosting an education session by the local environment office. Not only did our efforts increase awareness among gathering attendees about the importance of considering environmental impact reduction opportunities in their work, but they also catalyzed similar efforts at two national conferences. Our team took the lead in developing an evaluation of the environmental impact of each national conference and surveyed over 150 conference attendees. We collected demographic information, travel mode to the conference, and attitudes about environmental harms via a digital conference application. We also observed environmental actions implemented by event organizers and venue hosts. A carbon emission score and frequency distributions of attitudes surrounding the environment were calculated. Where possible, a food waste assessment was conducted. Findings showed that event organizers made efforts to minimize the environmental impact of their event by selecting a venue whose management was interested in collaborating; by encouraging attendees to carpool and use reusable water bottles; by serving plant-based meals, and by minimizing single-use products. Findings also revealed that most conference attendees consider it important to reduce the environmental impact of their professional lives. Given the value of face-to-face interaction in facilitating knowledge exchange (Chan et al., 2023), it is important that organizers continue to make efforts to reduce carbon emissions when planning events.