Green meeting
Is the organization of i-SUP2010 Green and sustainable?
Climate change, scarcity of resources and a fast growing population in emerging countries force the world to become more green and sustainable. If we are not working more sustainable we will need by 2050 2,3 earths. A lot of political efforts will be necessary to change drastically society, economy, consumption and industry. However, at this moment the technology is not yet developed to a stage where we can opt for a complete green world. This conference should help and guide us in the road maps toward these innovative technologies based, not on incremental improvements, but on completely new ideas and concepts. We can’t do it alone and so integration is utterly important. I-SUP2010 offers you the possibility to go and listen in on another conference than yours, we organize joint sessions and every morning you are invited to attend two key note lectures from one of the six conferences.
We encourage you to continuously ask questions about sustainability during all your discussions at the i-SUP2010 meeting. Everything that will be done in the future needs to be evaluated on its sustainability. This necessary fundamental rethinking of doing things applies also to the i-SUP2010 organization. How can you set something up that is both attractive, interesting and enjoyable at the same time while still being sustainable. Is it a possibility or a contradiction. We believe it is possible, and take this big challenge. Therefore, dear participants, we tried to grow in sustainability and in quality for this i-SUP2010 compared to i-SUP2008 and we will continue to do so in the future.
We used the Green meeting guide of the United Nations as a guideline. You can find the evaluation forms of the hotels, the catering forms and the form for the organization. As mentioned we try to find a way toward sustainability and we dare to ask you to help us in growing toward a more sustainable conference with your criticism and comments (see the ‘Ideas for a more sustainable and even better i-SUP2012’ computer.
We hereby give a few examples. You receive all the abstracts and papers on a USB stick that you can further use to record electronic information without printing. The stick is part of your lanyard. You do not receive a conference bag. We suppose that most of you have already many tens of such bags lying somewhere at home or in a landfill. You receive all the information in a conference guide which is made from recycled polymers and can be used for other purposes (no printing on it). We limit the information in the guide to the minimum. For those who would like to receive a bag, you can get one from the Bruges Tourism office. We offer you during the catering regional and seasonal products not brought from other parts of the world. The carpets in the exhibition tent will be recycled. Information and messages are handed via flat screens and not on paper.
We offer you to buy solar lanterns to compensate your CO2 emission of your flight. These solar lanterns will be used in villages in India (more than 400 million in India alone live without electricity) via the program of The Energy and Resources institute (TERI) in Delhi to ‘Light a billion lives’.
We have chosen Bruges, a small and wonderful city where everything can be reached on foot. This is good for your health, culture and social contacts and we are sure you will enjoy it.
Small steps on the way to a better and sustainable society, big steps to change technology, and a nice environment will support you and us to a fantastic i-SUP2010.
Enjoy it and be part of the change we need all.
The i-SUP2010 team.
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