ECOSTATEMENT

Creating a less wasteful, less carbon-intense conference

Academic research has a great potential and indeed responsibility for helping solve the multiple ecological and climatic troubles we are living through today. However, the current operations of academic institutions are also part of the problem as our practices are embedded in currently wasteful and carbon-intense material, economic and epistemic infrastructures. Academic mobility, especially short-term mobility related to the ways in which we are used to meeting each other, exchanging ideas and collaborating, is a significant part of the problem.

Organizing a major international conference in these times is a challenge. We want the conference to take place and have you here and happy in Prague. We also want to make the meeting as wasteless, carbon-neutral, and as little damaging for the local urban ecologies as possible. During the organization of the conference we have faced some dilemmas and made uneasy choices. We have had to invest some extra effort to act “against the grain” of the entrenched wasteful and carbon-intense infrastructures. Before and during the conference we will also slightly challenge you and ask you to step out of your comfort zone and experiment.

These are the things we care about and suggestions of what you can do to make the conference more ecological.

1. Catering (food, drinks and packaging)

Plant-based food is generally recognized as less carbon-intense and more environmentally friendly than meat, especially beef. It is common-sense that locally-sourced food has a smaller carbon footprint than similar food imported from abroad. This is why we will offer mostly plant-based, locally-sourced options. Lunch boxes will be vegan by default (with vegetarian and meat options). There will primarily be plant-based food served during the reception and banquet. But don’t worry, for those who want it there will be some meat!

We also keep searching for the best sustainably-sourced coffee provider.

Quality-assured tap water for drinking will be provided during the conference with many places to refill your bottles across the conference venue. We ask you to bring your own bottle.

2. Remote participation

As local organizers we recognize remote participation as an important element of increasing the ecological and social sustainability of academic meetings – and the inclusiveness. We want to support this in Prague as much as possible. As we have gradually found out, there are technical limits to how many sessions can be supported as synchronous remote presentations. We do not want to promise more than what is practically possible given the technical equipment at the conference venue, and risk making a “bad name” for remote participation if it fails to materialize in good quality. Most of the sessions will thus allow for pre-recorded presentations only, with limited participation of remote presenters in real time. However, we will encourage session chairs involving pre-recorded papers to experiment with different modes of providing feedback to remote presenters and including them in the discussion (for example through twitter exchanges accompanying the session). The lessons learnt in these experiments will be shared for future meetings.

The plenary and subplenaries will be livestreamed.

For details on the on how to participate remotely, see.

3. Travelling to Prague

Flying is clearly the most carbon-intense way to travel (in addition, the aerosols and nitrogen oxides released during the combustion of kerosene contribute significantly to the climate effect). If you can, please:

  • travel by train (these are some useful sites to get your train ticket when traveling across Europe: omnio.com, thetrainline.com, raileurope.com);
  • even better, come on your bike (or hiking, walking!);
  • if flying to Prague, check which flights are less carbon-intensive (economy class, direct flights) and consider offsetting the carbon released;
    • if you have a stopover in Europe, consider to switching to the train there, e.g. in Berlin or Vienna (direct trains) or Frankfurt (1 change);
  • come for the full course of the conference and make the meeting as productive and meaningful as possible;
  • consider taking vacations in the Czech Republic – there are many beautiful metropolitan and rural places to visit outside of Prague. We will provide some less obvious tips on the conference website.

4. Staying in Prague

The tourist traffic in Prague has severally intensified in the last 20 years. With a population of 1.3 million inhabitants it now receives nearly 8 million visitors annually (it was 2.6 mill. in 2000). As in some other European cities, this traffic is driving local inhabitants out of the city centre.

When booking your accommodation, consider staying in the neighbourhood of Prague 6 (where the conference venues are placed) or the adjacent Prague 7. These neighbourhoods are nice, safe and cool and have been less impacted by tourism.

When in Prague, avoid using taxis if possible. Public transport is reliable and cheap. Even better, walk through the city. You can easily wander throughout the wide inner city and Prague is generally very safe (but please take the usual precautions – we want you all to stay safe). The most dangerous element might be people on electric scooters navigating the city pavements – this is why we do not recommend renting one and rather stay with more traditional modes of public transport..

We will also offer you some interesting guided tours in less well-known parts of Prague.

5. Printed programme and other conference stuff

We will limit as much as possible the volume of material things provided to the participants. You will not get a bag from us. Some paper notebooks and pencils will be available on site if you need them but won’t be distributed by default.

We will explicitly ask you to indicate if you want a printed programme when you register for the conference. It is perfectly OK if you prefer to have one, we are happy to get it printed for you – we just want to avoid providing stuff which will not be used.

During the onsite registration you will get your conference badge, and, if you have requested it, a printed programme (with some blank pages to make notes).

6. Air-conditioning

The conference will take place in the premises of the Czech Technical University. Most of the seminar rooms are not equipped with air-conditioning. And even in those which are, we do not plan to use the air-conditioning. It is not standard to air-condition workplaces during summer in the Czech Republic. If you are used to cool(ed) places, please bring enough appropriate clothing for warmer temperatures to Prague and remember to drink more water (provided on site) than you might usually.

7. Special programme

There will be many panels, including one semi-plenary, dealing with the issues of ecological and climate sustainability on the programme. We will also organize a series of roundtables dedicated to the question of how to make academic practices more sustainable (more on that soon!).

We need your help to make the meeting less wasteful, carbon-intense and invasive for local ecologies. We hope you share our concerns. If you have any questions, suggestions or objections, please let us know. We are happy discuss any issue and fine-tune the arrangements whenever useful and possible.