UIST is committed to making the conference as sustainable as possible—from both social and environmental perspectives. Climate change due to human emissions of greenhouse gases is an urgent threat, and one which requires massive efforts at every level of society. We aim to champion environmental sustainability, specifically by
Informing and helping develop policy to promote more sustainable procurement, reduce travel, reduce waste, lower the environmental impacts of food choices, and lower direct and embodied energy demands
Collecting data to track the environmental impact of the conference and enable annual comparison of conference choices
Supporting the general chairs in embedding sustainable decision making into the conference and its organization
With the conference being in a virtual format this year, we are already creating significant carbon savings, for example through the elimination of travel. However, we are still planning a variety of sustainable initiatives that will help the conference moving forward
Data Collection: As part of a longer term plan to understand the conference’s environmental impact, we will collect data on energy usage and waste, which will enable us to make informed decisions for future conferences
UIST Beyond 2021: We understand the scale of the grand challenge that is climate change and recognise that significant change is required for our community and society at large. We are working towards future actions to minimise UIST’s carbon footprint
Integrating sustainable policies and procedures moving forward
Exploring opportunities to enable a virtual, hybrid or adapted approach to UIST conferences
Community Engagement: We cannot do this alone, we need to engage with the community and facilitate a discussion on UIST’s role in the climate crisis. We want to uncover how we can tackle issues of social and environmental sustainability as a collective, both through the conference itself and the way in which we conduct our research. This will involve gathering community feedback on the benefits and drawbacks of virtual/hybrid conferences
You can reach out to the sustainability chairs directly about the topics discussed here, or any other topics, at sustainability2021@uist.org.
Questions? Contact: sustainability2021@uist.org
