Events

Changing Landscapes: Towards a sustainable economy in Asia

Green Conference

The ‘Changing Landscapes: Towards a sustainable economy in Asia’ conference will be Green aiming to reduce the Ecological and Carbon Footprint of the conference.

Following on from the successful methods used at the UNEP FI Roundtable in Melbourne, the information gained will be used as an informant of the high impact areas so that all hosting organizations, PRI, UNEP FI and Global Compact will manage the environmental impacts of our event.

Our efforts will be made in whatever area possible in order to uphold the principles of environmental concern:

• Carbon and Ecological Footprint Measurement.
• Carbon Management
• Waste Management

Carbon and Ecological Footprint Measurement

The Carbon and Ecological Footprint Events Calculator measures the resource consumption across the life cycle of an event and convert this to the amount of productive area needed to supply the resources consumed and assimilate the waste generated by it. The Footprint tool also measures the greenhouse gasses emitted (GHG). You can access the calculator at http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/ecologicalfootprint/calculators/event/introduction.asp

Although international events cannot reduce the amount of international travelers, one important conclusion laid was that travelling should only occur for key meetings where face-to-face communication is vital to achieve results.

Guests should also be encouraged to use less resource intensive accommodation, such as lower star or ‘green’ hotels.

Carbon Management

UNEP FI were able to, with the help of Green Event Sponsor, Origin Energy, offset the entire event Carbon Footprint, including participant flights, unless otherwise informed that they had already been offset.

Examples of Offsetting included:

• Increased walking and public transportation use
• Switched to renewable energy during the entire event, albeit this waws acquired using estimated energy data for some venues due to data being unavailable.
• Reduced energy consumption through thermostat adjustment of cooling and heating.

Waste Management

UNEP FI achieved a Silver Waste Wise Event Certification by working with the venues to ensure that production of waste was avoided, waste was diverted from landfill through recycling and composting, where the facilities were available.

This event and the lessons learnt from its fruition have acted as a prompter for ‘Changing Landscapes: Towards a sustainable economy in Asia’ conference to also lay some major principles to commit to.

Some considerations will be:

• Switching the energy used at the event to renewable sources for the duration of the entire event.
• Providing free local public transport tickets for participants over the two days and encourage participants to use it.
• Booking the hotels for participants so that they are within easy walking distance of the conference venue or easily accessible by public transport.
• Avoiding resource intensive foods, such as beef, for all catering, and source local or organic products where possible and within budget.
• Printing conference material in Seoul and on FSC certified paper and using vegetable-based inks, so as not to fly the conference documents from abroad.
• Reducing waste to landfill by providing and implementing waste wise procedures.

We will strive to do the best it can in order to make the event as Green as possible.

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