Greening the IHDP Open Meeting 2009

Sarah Mekjian

Nine hundred and thirty eight participants took advantage of the IHDP Open Meeting 2009 to directly engage with one another on the social challenges associated with the global changes we are increasingly facing. Yet while the Open Meeting provided an essential platform for the discussion of such urgent matters, it came, like any international conference of its size, with considerable environmental costs. Taking the IHDP Open Meeting 2009’s environmental impacts into account and working to reduce them was thus an imperative for IHDP- an experience that proved to be a worthwhile institutional challenge.

By choosing to have the IHDP Open Meeting 2009 at the World Conference Center Bonn, IHDP took its first step in working towards a more sustainable conference. Its historical significance as the former seat of the German Government has limited changes to certain aspects of the World Conference Center main hall, yet despite this obstacle, the centre and its service providers have made numerous efforts to reduce their environmental impacts, and this ranges from the venue itself to the catering service it employs. In terms of paper usage, every effort was made to minimize waste in the form of printed materials, and that which was printed, was done so on either Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified or recycled paper. Close attention was also paid to green procurement. Almost all conference materials were sourced from within Germany and unnecessary conference giveaways were avoided, as was the use of synthetic materials where possible.

The largest environmental impact of the IHDP Open Meeting 2009 came, however, in the form of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from travel. On a local level, IHDP’s provision of free metro and buss passes encouraged the use of public transportation throughout the conference. To raise awareness about the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from air travel brought about by the Open Meeting and the Open Meeting’s organisation in general, IHDP partnered with CO2OL (www. CO2OL.de), a local carbon offsetter. Twenty two participants took advantage of carbon calculator that CO2OL offered both online and on site, tailored to the Open Meeting and participants from all over the world came to the CO2OL stand to find out more about carbon offsetting and carbon footprints, some of whom even corresponded with CO2OL after the Open Meeting’s end. In CO2OL’s final calculation, the average participant’s Open Meeting related carbon footprint equaled to some 2.68 tonnes of CO2 equivalents, with travel accounting for 97 percent of that number. With 933 participants actually present at the IHDP Open Meeting 2009, overall emissions from the preparations, travel, and the conference itself totaled 2,676 tonnes of CO2 equivalents.

IHDP recognises that the type of face to face communication made possible by the IHDP Open Meeting 2009 is irreplaceable, and IHDP has worked hard to tackle some of the social challenges of global change throughout the planning of the Open Meeting. As in the case of the IHDP Open Meeting 2009, temporal, financial and regulatory considerations often make this a difficult process and more can always be done. IHDP’s experience with this Open Meeting has shown just how difficult the integration of green aspects in large scale event planning can be. Yet large scale changes often start with small but earnest efforts, and the IHDP Open Meeting 2009 represented just such an effort. IHDP endeavours to continue these efforts, heightening its environmental performance for all future events and activities.