Publication detail

Trend towards virtual and hybrid conferences may be an effective climate change mitigation strategy

TAO, Y. STECKEL, D. KLEMEŠ, J. YOU, F.

Original Title

Trend towards virtual and hybrid conferences may be an effective climate change mitigation strategy

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has urged event holders to shift conferences online. Virtual and hybrid conferences are greener alternatives to in-person conferences, yet their environmental sustainability has not been fully assessed. Considering food, accommodation, preparation, execution, information and communication technology, and transportation, here we report comparative life cycle assessment results of in-person, virtual, and hybrid conferences and consider carbon footprint trade-offs between in-person participation and hybrid conferences. We find that transitioning from in-person to virtual conferencing can substantially reduce the carbon footprint by 94% and energy use by 90%. For the sake of maintaining more than 50% of in-person participation, carefully selected hubs for hybrid conferences have the potential to slash carbon footprint and energy use by two-thirds. Furthermore, switching the dietary type of future conferences to plant-based diets and improving energy efficiencies of the information and communication technology sector can further reduce the carbon footprint of virtual conferences. Moving conferences from in-person to virtual and hybrid modes may have emissions reductions benefits. Here the authors find that the switch to virtual and hybrid conferencing reduces the carbon footprint by 94% when it comes to the switch to virtual conferencing, and 67% for hybrid conferences with carefully selected hubs.

Keywords

carbon footprint; climate change; COVID-19; energy use; information

Authors

TAO, Y.; STECKEL, D.; KLEMEŠ, J.; YOU, F.

Released

16. 12. 2021

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Location

NATURE RESEARCH, HEIDELBERGER PLATZ 3, BERLIN 14197, GERMANY

ISBN

2041-1723

Periodical

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS

Year of study

12

Number

1

State

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Pages from

7324

Pages to

7324

Pages count

14

URL

https://www.proquest.com/docview/2610660191/fulltextPDF/544DF808975C4316PQ/1?accountid=17115

Full text in the Digital Library

http://hdl.handle.net/11012/204007

BibTex

@article{BUT175668,
  author="Yanqiu {Tao} and Debbie {Steckel} and Jiří {Klemeš} and Fengqi {You}",
  title="Trend towards virtual and hybrid conferences may be an effective climate change mitigation strategy",
  journal="NATURE COMMUNICATIONS",
  year="2021",
  volume="12",
  number="1",
  pages="7324--7324",
  doi="10.1038/s41467-021-27251-2",
  issn="2041-1723",
  url="https://www.proquest.com/docview/2610660191/fulltextPDF/544DF808975C4316PQ/1?accountid=17115"
}