Why and how we are measuring our sustainable outputs this year
We all know that the impact of climate change is severe.
Climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss are interconnected factors which individually and collectively have a profoundly destructive impact on human and planetary health. Our actions and their impacts will be inherited by the generations to come.
Therefore, in line with the College's position on sustainability we
will this year be looking to measure the outputs of our International Congress, with the aim to produce a plan to improve the environmental impact of the event in the coming years.
What will we be measuring
We will primarily be looking to gain oversight over the environmental impact of our International Congress through measuring both our emissions and waste.
We will be working closely with our event venue, the EICC, Edinburgh to capture our carbon outputs over the duration of the event. In addition, we will be measuring our waste outputs and how much of it is reused and recycled. We will also be recording the travel of our speakers, staff, delegates and suppliers. We first started doing this at our 2022 International Congress and hope to shortly be able to start producing a formal report comparing the environmental impact year on year.
Steps we are taking in 2024
While we are largely looking at measuring our environmental impact this year to make improvements for the future, we have already taken some steps to reduce our impact for the 2024 International Congress.
- We have actively chosen suppliers local to the Congress venue to reduce the number of transport miles
- We have consolidated our supply chains to reduce the number of potential suppliers
- We are encouraging all staff, delegates and speakers to travel to the venue by train wherever possible
- We aim to use recyclable and/or reusable materials for our branding and signage throughout the venue
- Last year we invested in a multi use solution for the College stand so we can use it year on year
- We will be working closely with the venue to explore the recycling streams available
- We will be exploring more meat free options for our catering and how we can responsibly dispose of any food waste
- We aim to be a single use plastic free event, and will use proper serve ware that can be used again
- We will be reducing the amount of printed material we use and hand out across the event. Making use of the Congress app once again
How can you help?
We would very much like you to get involved in helping us to achieve our aims.
- Let us know how you travelled to the Congress through our feedback form, this will help us record our travel emissions
- Bring your own reusable water bottle/coffee cup to help us reduce single use plastic waste.
- Consider your travel options, wherever possible reduce your carbon emissions by travelling by train or consider lift sharing to the conference venue. Please do visit the EICC Website to plan your travel arrangements. They have teamed up with You.Smart.Thing. to help you plan your journey to the EICC in the most sustainable way. You can enter your starting point and compare the CO2e usage for each option available to you