{"id":1352,"date":"2021-07-05T08:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/?p=1352"},"modified":"2021-06-29T11:38:16","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T11:38:16","slug":"greener-conferences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/2021\/07\/05\/greener-conferences\/","title":{"rendered":"Greener conferences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Dr Charlotte Rae<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conference season is upon us, and this year lots of us will be attending virtual meetings instead of travelling to conferences in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although many of us are missing seeing our colleagues in person, online conferences can have a number of benefits, from inclusivity and better accessibility, especially for those with caring commitments or visa difficulties, to the carbon saved by not having thousands of academics flying around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently attended the online Organization for Human Brain Mapping<\/a> meeting. The last time this conference was in person (Rome, 2019), the carbon emissions from all the participants\u2019 travel added up to around 3,500 tonnes of CO2. That\u2019s roughly 636 elephants!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klower et al<\/a> (2020, Nature<\/em>) undertook a comprehensive assessment of how much carbon is saved by online conferences compared to in person, and it\u2019s a staggering amount \u2013 you cut carbon by over 99% if the meeting is fully online (see figure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Source: M. Kl\u00f6wer\u00a0https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5281\/zenodo.3553784<\/a>\u00a0(2019)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Looking forwards, many of us will want to retain the benefits of both online and in-person meetings. Klower et al highlight a number of ways this could be achieved sustainably, from hybrid meetings, where you choose to be either in person or online, to hub-and-spoke conferences, where there are multiple locations and you travel to your nearest hub \u2013 combining the benefits of seeing colleagues while reducing the amount of intercontinental travel that comes with the highest carbon costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic has forced us to consider alternative conference models, but the ongoing climate crisis means that we need to reshape the way we do academic meetings in the longer term. If your society isn\u2019t taking action on creating a vision for a sustainable post-Covid meeting, ask them what their plan is. If you want any advice, get in touch with me (c.rae@sussex.ac.uk<\/a>) \u2013 in the OHBM Sustainability group I chair, we are currently producing an action plan for OHBM<\/a> and also have lots of resources on our website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Charlotte Rae<\/a>\u00a0is the Faculty Green Officer<\/em> at the School of Psychology at Sussex and the Founding Chair of the Organisation for\u00a0Human Brain Mapping\u2019s Sustainability and Environment Action Special Interest Group<\/a><\/em>. Charlotte also leads the Adaptive Behavioural Control Lab<\/a>,\u00a0which researches the processes by which how we feel (interoception) influences how we behave (action).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr Charlotte Rae Conference season is upon us, and this year lots of us will be attending virtual meetings instead of travelling to conferences in person. Although many of us are missing seeing our colleagues in person, online conferences…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[168143],"tags":[143,84190,43416],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pafdEV-lO","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1735,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/2022\/10\/19\/train-over-plane-psychedelic-breathwork-the-interdisciplinary-conference-on-psychedelic-research-2022\/","url_meta":{"origin":1352,"position":0},"title":"Train over plane, Psychedelic breathwork & the Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research 2022","date":"October 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Guy Fincham As part of our school's green commitment, we have launched a new 'Train over Plane' travel fund which supports travel to conferences by train instead of plane. 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