This year we are making a concerted effort to raise awareness around the sustainability of our Annual International Conference and how we are trying to reduce its overall footprint.
Our Annual International Conference is the largest annual academic geography conference in Europe, with over 1,900 delegates from nearly 60 countries due to take part in over 400 sessions, so it poses particular challenges in terms of resource use and sustainability. We are keen to minimise the generation of food, water and energy waste, as well as the use of plastics, rare metals and minerals.
Our sustainability policy has always focused on reduction, then reuse, and then recycling. So this year we will not be providing single-use plastic water bottles and we will only be offering vegetarian and vegan lunch options. For a number of years we have not provided delegate bags or inserts in order to reduce the materials delegates and exhibitors dispose of almost immediately. We have also reduced the number of printed programme books we produce, while our caterers recycle 100% of any food waste produced.
We recognise that travel to the conference has a significant environmental impact so we are encouraging delegates to travel by train and bus, and to use local public transport links when in London, where possible. We are also exploring ways to improve opportunities for distance participation for AC2020.
We know there is more that we can do, and we are keen to hear your suggestions for how we can make the conference more sustainable. If you have any ideas, please contact us at ac2019@rgs.org or in person at the conference helpdesk, during the conference.
This year’s conference will be held at the Society in London from Tuesday 27 to Friday 30 August and has the theme Geographies of trouble/geographies of hope.
Find out more about our sustainability policy at the conference.
Take a look at our final programme.
Find out more about our Annual International Conference.