Offsetting the carbon footprint of the 2021-conference
We will offset the carbon footprint of this year’s annual conference. €5 of your conference fee will go towards planting trees in the rain forests of Costa Rica. While video conferencing does emit less carbon than f2f-conferences, nothing has zero emissions and a digital conference is not automatically green. It is still difficult to calculate exactly how much carbon emissions video conferences create, but there are estimates.
For example:
A one-hour standard-definition video call consumes about 270 MB per person.
The standard-definition video calls would emit 0.6 kg of CO2.
Given that one average tree absorbs about 10kg of CO2 per year, it takes the planting of one tree to offset a standard quality video call with 36 participants (which is appr. the size of an average IMISCOE panel session). (sources: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210114134033.htm, https://gerrymcgovern.com/the-hidden-pollution-cost-of-online-meetings/, https://davidmytton.blog/zoom-video-conferencing-energy-and-emissions/)
We will work with a local NGO, rainforest.lu, which works with locals in Costa Rica on the reforestation of the La Gamba biological corridor (COBIGA) and which assures that 100% of the donations go into the project.
