Environmentally-friendly & sustainable conference
The Conference Organising Team worked hard on reducing environmental impacts caused by a conference of this size. However, with this many participants there will always be negative effects on the environment – e.g. unavoidable CO2 emissions caused by travelling, more food and rubbish, etc. Therefore, nothing is perfect, but we tried with the following measures to minimize the ecological footprint the conference is causing and being socially responsible:
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We asked all catering companies supporting the conference venues to avoid any plastic, such as disposable cutlery, dishes and unnecessary packaging and wrappings.
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The serviettes used for all conference events are compostable, FSC-labelled, and received the Nordic Ecolabel.
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By using the water bottles each conference participant receives at the registration, you reduce dirty dishes and extra cleaning, as well as save energy used for producing beverage bottles.
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In order to minimize our carbon footprint, we want to offset the conference emissions by supporting emission saving projects. At the time of printing this booklet (beginning of August) we are working on compensating emissions from: mobility (flights, train- and car rides and public transportation of all participants), accommodation, energy, heating, air-conditioning, catering, waste disposal.
This is done in cooperation with Atmosfair, a German non-profit organisation. More information will be provided during the conference. -
We use sea lyme grass (Leimus Arenarius) particularly cultured for the protection of the North German coast line for the decoration on the tables during the breaks. After the conference, the lyme grass will be handed over to the POSIMA project of the Department of Geography, Kiel University, in cooperation with the German Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and the agency Project Management Jülich (www.posima.de). Eventually, all lyme grass we used for decoration will protect around 10 m2 of coastline, supporting species diversity, reducing sand transport and enhancing CO2 fixation.
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Think global – act local. We tried to use as many local partners and regional products as possible. This also includes the food provided by the caterers.
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Posters and signs not used after the conference will be sponsored to local Kindergartens for arts and crafts.
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We try our best to separate and recycle the waste and garbage produced during the conference.
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The abstract booklet is printed on 100 % recycled paper, awarded with the ecolabel Blue Angel and climate-neutral. For the name tags we chose PEFC-certified paper.