WILL PANDEMIC REALITIES LEAD TOWARDS MORE SUSTAINABLE CONVENTIONS?
How can we ensure Bay Area corporations lead the way with environmentally sustainable business practices? A major area of impact may be linked towards how these entities plan their professional conventions moving forward.
The Bay Area is no stranger to professional conferences and conventions. From Moscone Center to the South San Francisco Conference Center to the San Jose Convention Center, our region has hosted massive professional conventions for companies like IBM, Salesforce, and Oracle in years past.
But the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced companies to adapt towards moving conventions completely online. And a recent study by Cornell University provided insight into just how much of an impact this move has had for a professional event’s carbon footprint.
The Cornell study concluded that moving professional conferences completely online reduced their carbon footprint by 94%. Hybridizing conventions (with no more than half of conventioneers online) was still shown to curb the carbon footprint by 67%.
What we don’t often consider when attending these conventions is the environmental impact individuals have while attending. Through the energy required to travel and keep the convention active to even the food waste generated by participants, conventions undeniably promote unsustainable environmental practices.
According to the study published by Cornell, the carbon footprint per individual participant at these conventions may reach up to 6,600 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent.
A movement towards hybrid professional conventions would go a long way to ensuring Bay Area corporate interests show support for an environmentally sustainable future.