are economic bene ts to be had in doing that. Track those savings, because those savings are what you’ll be able to show to your boss and say, ‘Look, I saved $5,000 by either reducing the signs or using electronic signage,’ for example. Will anything make a difference if delegates are still flying to our meetings? SM: Aviation accounts for 75-95 per cent of a conference’s carbon footprint. Analysts are looking at sustainable aviation, talking about electric ights or hydrogen planes,
delegate through ying as opposed to taking the train. Ultimately, you must give them the options and when people know that facts, they can choose to take responsibility for their choices Should I be working with the host city to encourage delegates to take the train? GB: A good destination should be able to o er incentives to encourage delegates to catch the train, such as discounted train fares, but this also needs to be encouraged and communicated by the event organiser. IMEX, for example, took the initiative to get 30 per cent of their hosted buyers on trains to their conference. at’s a signi cant reduction to the event’s carbon footprint. Once the delegates are in the destination, you need to consider how they’re going to move around. Ask the destination if they can provide free train passes or reduced fares. Some destinations can even place conference representatives at transport hubs to help delegates navigate where they’re going. A lot of people dismiss offsetting as greenwashing. Others say it has a place. What’s the truth? SM: We know we have a limited carbon budget and if we have any chance of staying within two degrees of global warming, never mind 1.5, we must reduce emissions to zero. e longer we delay those reductions, the more damage is caused because emissions are continuing to accumulate in the atmosphere. Reducing now actually makes quite a bit more di erence than if we o set and support a project that isn’t going to reduce emissions for ve or 10 years. If we’re using o setting to kick the can down the road, then there’s absolutely a case to be made for that being greenwashing. It takes a long time to grow a tree. Have we got that long? SM: Tree planting is very popular, and if you’re going down this route, you need to make sure the rights of stakeholder groups have been considered. ere’s a lot of issues around forestry assets, the rights of indigenous people and the use of non- native species. Timescales are another issue, with forestry or peatland restoration, you’re paying for an o set now, but the reality is your ambitions are
but those are not going to scale up and be viable for at least another 10 to 15 years. NZ: ere’s always been a badge for travel, but we need to step away from
The longer that we delay those reductions, the more damage that’s caused
travelling for business for travelling’s sake. is extends to speakers too. Do you need to y in a speaker from India, for example, or could they deliver their speech remotely? If we can’t avoid flying, how can we reduce its impact? NZ: Associations could make their meetings regional so more people can drive or not y as far. And if it’s not going to be a regional meeting, nd out where most of your attendees are coming from and choose a destination close to them. ere are huge (carbon) savings to be had if delegates can take a direct ight as opposed to taking several stops. SM: If you opt for an international conference every second year and in the o -year host regional conventions, that is catalytic to reducing overall airlift, often enabling people in certain regions to shift to trains instead of short haul ights. It doesn’t have to be this situation of not ying at all. It’s about how can we reduce ying, but it is a tough one, and it’s probably our biggest challenge. What can we do to encourage our delegates to get the train instead of flying to a conference? EAM: It comes down to communication. As a meeting planner, you have the responsibility to nd a venue that has access to public transport. en communicate why delegates should opt for the train instead of the plane and be explicit about how many emissions are produced per
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