priorities. Nevertheless, the association takes its environmental responsibilities seriously. In fact, sustainability is the theme of its next conference in June 2021, now happening virtually because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. Each item ontheprogramme is linkedtoat leastoneof the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, including the launch of an environmental manifesto which will provide guidelines of good practice for all those in the editing and scholarly publishing industries. The event was originally scheduled to be held in Valencia, last year, and would have piloted various environmental initiatives: choosing a conference venue within easy walking distance of delegates accommodation; sharing transport from the airport, swapping plastic for china; and choosing a meat-free menu. They had planned to offer delegates the opportunity to pay an offset fee on their travel emissions when registering, which would provide a fund to support a local Spanish project who regenerate abandoned olive groves, providing employment for local people with learning difficulties and, through judicious pruning and pest control, increase the trees’ carbon-capture properties. It is hoped this initiative will be rolled over to 2022. Although the next in-person conference (now planned for June 2022) will now have a different theme, Mary is confident that ‘much of this good stuff’ will remain. “In fact, we are planning to donate a contribution from the registration fees of thisyear’svirtual conference tosupporting planting new trees in the country of the delegate, through the Plant for the Planet
HEIGHTENED AWARENESS We know some of this might look like a token gesture,” says Mary Hodgson, secretary of the European Association of Science Editors (EASE) on the organisation’s decision to implement various environmental initiatives at their in-person events, “but it’s about raising awareness, and helping to move some of these ideas nearer the mainstream. We know one small conference going meat- free isn’t going to save the planet!” EASE is not a big association. It has 500 international members, and its biennial conference attracts around 120 people, with networking one of the main
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