ECE 2013 going green

With a reported fifth of its power currently coming from wind energy, and the commitment to become ‘fossil fuel free’ by 2050, Denmark is a world-leader in the green revolution.

Hoping to make the world a better place, ECE 2013 has joined them in this commitment by replacing the physical abstract book with the enhanced functionality of a congress app. Thanks to the incredible abstract submissions that this conference now attracts you can see the impact for yourself:

The ICE/ECE 2012 abstract book weighed in at 1.683kg. With 5500 delegates in attendance that meant a minimum weight of 8.415 metric tonnes. Getting this weight to the conference venue by road generated an estimated 2.75kg of CO2 per mile (source: US Environment Protection Agency).

We’re not going to change the world overnight, and above is just one metric for the environmental impact that international conferences can have. Further, the relative contributions of the printed abstract book versus the smartphone to overall ‘environment-friendliness’ are still under hot debate. However, given the increasing size and weight of the abstract book we’re sure that by only making the 1192 abstracts submitted to this year’s congress available in electronic form we will ease the burden on the planet and on your arms! It’s a start.

And as for the app, as well as browsing the abstracts you’ll be able make use of the personal planner to schedule your day, connect with colleagues using the networking tool, catch up with the daily news and more, all at the click of a button. But more on that tomorrow…