Support for Green Conferences only Lip Service - So what can be done?

Abstract

Although support for making conferences more green and sustainable have grown over the years, such philanthropic considerations are overshadowed by the hard factors ultimately determining attendance to conferences. These include factors such as time and distance, the nature of the conference, and destination attractiveness. Environmental sustainability of the conference or the venue remains a poor influencing factor. This study therefore examines to what extent various ‘conference green attributes’ or sustainable interventions are related to hard factors and if so determine ways of influencing attendees to be more selective toward green conferences. The study explores this relationship in a sample of German conference attendees, with results indicating support for the status quo but also reveals some potential avenues for changing attendees’ preference for green conferences.