Rethinking Academic Conferences: Carbon Footprints and Sustainable Alternatives in the Climate Crisis Era

Background and Purpose

Academic conferences play a vital role in advancing disciplines and fostering growth and community by sharing knowledge, exchanging ideas, and engaging in intellectual and robust conversations. However, in an era of climate crisis, conferences that involve long travel pose a dilemma for climate-conscious researchers and educators due to their significant carbon emissions. Hence, an increasing number of scholars are researching the impacts of academic flying and exploring alternative conference formats.

In social work, there has been a surprising silence on our carbon emissions contribution, despite our close ties to climate justice. As a practice-oriented profession emphasizing reflexivity and social action, it is crucial to proactively develop strategies to promote sustainability, climate consciousness, and ecological justice within and beyond our field. This article aims to spark dialogue by examining conference travel practices and considering alternatives alongside insights from other disciplines.

Methods

This study estimated the carbon footprint of the SSWR 2023 conference in Phoenix, Arizona, by calculating air travel emissions of presenters using publicly available information from the conference program and the Carbon Footprint Calculator by Carbon Footprint Ltd, which is one of the most thorough online calculator tools according to a study that examined 31 online carbon footprint measuring tools (Murlow et al., 2019). We used the great circle method to compute carbon emissions for each presenter, assuming a round-trip, economy-class direct flight to Phoenix for those outside a 300-mile radius, while those within drove to the conference.

Results

We estimate that the 1,677 participants who presented at SSWR 2023 emitted over 1,383.17 tonnes of carbon through air travel, which is an average of 0.82 tonnes of CO₂ emitted per person. For each presenter, this is more than the yearly emissions of individuals living in Sub-Saharan Africa (0.7 tonnes) and double the yearly emissions of individuals from “the least developed countries,” (0.3 tonnes) as categorized by the United Nations (World Bank, 2023). Our results fall within the estimated range found in previous literature for conferences, shedding light on the significant greenhouse gas emissions associated with attending a single conference.

Conclusion and Implications

With climate change amplifying existing inequities and disparities of vulnerable and underserved populations, our professional commitment to marginalized and at-risk groups embedded within social work’s code of ethics necessitates the profession to be at the forefront of addressing the climate crisis by forging meaningful changes within existing systems. Yet, these discussions have been notably absent within the profession. With attending conferences accounts for one-third of carbon emissions in higher education, decreasing the carbon footprint in the field of social work will represent an important first step to raising awareness and modeling for future events both within and beyond the field of social work. By advocating for a reduction in carbon footprint, we are not placing blame on individual scholars or discouraging their participation in academic conferences. Instead, we are addressing this matter in the same way as other climate change concerns, emphasizing the need for comprehensive institutional and collective changes.