Distributed Computing Column 86 The Environmental Cost of Our Conferences

Abstract

Overview. In this Winter edition of the column, we cover a novel topic for our community, namely the environmental cost of our conferences, specifically in terms of CO2 emissions. The idea of having this column was sparked by the work of the DISC 2023 environmental chairs Laurent Feuilloley and Tijn de Vos, who performed a detailed study for this latest edition of the conference. I suggested the authors to distill their detailed study to a shorter, less technical variant, complete with some higher-level observations and possible recommendations for reducing the environmental cost of our scientific meetings. I would encourage the readership to read at least the introductory section, and consider some of the suggested approaches, and possibly consider other creative alternatives. Unfortunately, it appears clear that we as a community will have to ponder this topic again in the future.