Overseen by Dr Ash Willmott, BASES Climate Change Action Team (CCAT)
We have investigated how this conference can minimise wastage, improve sustainability, and lower our carbon footprint, in-line with our institutional pledge to cut carbon to zero by 2045. This also compliments the proposed BASES conference guidelines by CCAT.
We will source sustainable delegate Tote bags, ensuring these are reusable and reduce plastic and waste in our pens by using pens that are made from left over stalks from harvested wheat. We will advise delegates to “bring their own water bottles” and use one of the many refilling stations located around campus (although, paper recyclable cups will be on hand for those who forget).
The conference programme will be printed on paper that folds into the delegates’ lanyard (also recyclable), alongside sustainable name tags for all delegates.
With regards to our on-campus catering options, we're one of the very first universities to join the Kale Yeah! Kitchens scheme, putting sustainability at the heart of all that we do. ARU also adopts the Better Chicken Commitment for 100% of the chicken (fresh/frozen/processed) in our entire UK supply chain and will meet all the standards in it by 2026 at the latest. Therefore, we endeavour to ensure that all catering requirements will be evaluated in terms of locally sourced, sustainable and wastage/cost reducing options.
Finally, the certificate of attendance will not be printed, but instead, sent digitally to all delegates alongside PDF copies of the abstract proceedings. This can then be added to their digital profile (eg LinkedIn). We anticipate working with BASES CCAT to organise the most sustainable conference, which can be used as a template for all future BASES Student conferences.