EFC’s commitment to a future that is good for people, planet, and place will underpin the planning and delivery of our conference. We recognize that there is a ‘carbon cost’ to gathering in person and are taking steps to address our carbon footprint, including through a recommended carbon offset fee in the registration. We hope you will support our efforts to green our annual conference.
Reducing our Emissions
EFC is working, along with our venue, Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac, to reduce emission associated with our conference by following green conference practices wherever possible. This includes:
- Minimizing paper use by providing registration and conference information digitally.
- Eliminating exhibitor materials and collateral.
- Eliminating plastic water bottles and asking that you bring a refillable water bottle. Water will be available throughout the conference.
- Avoiding single-serve containers for food and condiments, as well as other unnecessary disposable items, such as coffee stir sticks and straws.
- Ensuring all dishes, cutlery and linens are reusable.
- Locally sources food options wherever possible.
- Minimizing food waste by providing accurate attendee estimates and asking venue to compost waste and donate/utilize surplus food where feasible.
Offsetting our Emissions
Even with steps to reduce our footprint, we recognize that the majority of conference emissions (over 90%) are related to travel, on top of venue related impacts we can’t avoid. To address this, we are including a recommended $30 carbon offset fee as part of this year’s registration cost. Funds collected from this fee will be invested in Carbone boréal, a verified Quebec-based greenhouse gas offset program, through tree planting, and a research project led by researchers at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi.
This fee will be payable as an add-on item that you can select via Eventbrite at the time of your registration. We have calculated this fee based on a coarse estimate of carbon emission from travel and other mandatory venue activities. By including a standard fee for all, we are recognizing that people from Canada and beyond to attend our conference and are sharing the cost collectively without penalizing those who must travel farther to attend. We encourage all registrants to include this fee in their registration process. Strong participation will help us render our event carbon neutral (or even carbon negative if everyone participates!).
Thank you for your help in making this year’s conference a green in-person event!
