Understand the impact of conference travel
Travel is often one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions associated with conferences. Understanding how participants travel can help organisers measure their environmental footprint and identify opportunities for improvement.
View the open-source projectWhy use a travel carbon calculator?
A conference can make sustainability commitments, but measuring the impact of travel provides valuable evidence about where the largest emissions come from.
How it works?
The tool is designed around the reality of conference travel. A participant may use several modes of transportation before reaching the conference destination, so the tool supports journeys with multiple legs.
Enter the journey
Participants enter their starting location and the different legs of their journey.
For example: home → train station → airport → conference city.
Choose transport modes
Each leg can use a different transport mode, allowing the tool to represent realistic multi-modal journeys.
Distance is calculated from the selected locations.
Estimate emissions
The tool calculates the estimated distance and emissions for each journey leg and provides a total for the trip.
Results can then be used as conference sustainability data.
Example journey
A participant does not necessarily travel from their home directly to the conference. The calculator can represent journeys involving several transport modes.
The values above illustrate the type of result produced by the tool. Actual results depend on the locations, transport modes and configured emissions factors.
How conferences can use the tool?
The calculator can be integrated into the registration process or presented as an optional travel-planning tool. The resulting information can then support both immediate communication and longer-term sustainability planning.
During registration
Invite participants to describe their expected journey when they register for the conference. This makes sustainable travel part of the conversation from the beginning.
After the conference
Aggregate the collected information to understand the overall travel profile of your event. Use the results to identify the biggest sources of emissions.
For future conferences
Compare results across editions and use the evidence to guide future decisions about locations, travel and conference design. Measurement makes improvement possible.
Data and supporting resources
- Emissions factors: Our World in Data – Carbon footprint of travel modes
- Place search: Photon
- Default place-search service: Photon API