Climate-friendly BAQ

The BAQ 2008 Organizing Committee is doing its share to reduce this year's carbon footprint through the following measures:

•  BAQ Carbon Pledge for self-funded and sponsored participants.

Participants are encouraged to be aware of the carbon footprint of their flight to Bangkok, and to take personal measures to reduce their impact on climate change. Participants who apply for sponsorship will need to submit the BAQ Carbon Pledge upon confirmation of their sponsorship.

 

•  Reducing the use of bottled water during workshop
Estimated CO2 savings = 480kg CO2

Previous BAQs made use of bottled water during plenary, sub-plenary, subworkshops, pre-events etc. An estimated  8,000 bottles of water was used in every BAQ. This year, your organizing committee agreed with the IQP to avoid the use of bottled waters during the workshop.

 

CO2 Impacts of Bottled Water
The manufacture of every ton of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) produces around 3 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).  If an average 500ml PET bottle weighs  20 g . It  then takes equivalent of 60g CO2 to manufacture  one 500ml PET bottle.

Water Required to Make Bottled Water
In addition to the water sold in plastic bottles, the Pacific Institute estimates that twice as much water is used in the production process. Thus, every liter sold represents three liters of water.

Transporting and Recycling Bottled Water
More energy is needed to fill the bottles with water at the factory, move it by truck, train, ship, or air freight to the user, cool it in grocery stores or home refrigerators, and recover, recycle, or throw away the empty bottles. The Pacific Institute estimates that the total amount of energy embedded in our use of bottled water can be as high as the equivalent of filling a plastic bottle one quarter full with oil.

Sources:
Euro-med Laboratories specification limits for 500 ml PET bottle
Pacific Institute.  http://www.pacinst.org/topics/water_and_sustainability/bottled_water/bot...
 

 

 

•  Reducing the use of paper for hand-outs
Estimated CO2 savings = 2,438kg CO2

The previous BAQs spent an average of up to 500 reams of paper (250,000 pages) for hand-outs - equivalent to 4,204 kg CO2. For BAQ 2008, the Organizing Committee shall limit the hand-outs to be given and shall provide soft copies of the presentations and other pertinent documents instead.  The committee also prints in advance a Compendium of Abstracts (average 70 pages, 1000 copies) which is roughly equivalent to 1,177 kg CO2. This year the BAQ organizing committee will not print a Compendium of Abstracts and will instead post  in the BAQ website the  abstracts a week before BAQ. BAQ 2008 will also reduce availability of photocopied materials by at least 30%.

 

Paper production
The production of paper produces CO2 from a variety of factors (forest soil loss, trucking, pulping, paper manufacturing, shipping. Excluding transportation and shipping, one ream of paper generates 18.5 pounds  (8.409 kg) of CO2.

Sources:  Dauncey, G. Going Carbon Neutral. 1999.  http://www.newsociety.com/Publishers%20CO2%20Template%20USA.pdf
Paperless Productivity, Inc. http://paperless-productivity.org/ecoimpact.htm

 

 

•  Eliminating the need for bus travel during the BAQ
Estimated CO2 savings =  95kg CO2

Previous BAQs shuttled participants between  hotels and the venue as well as hotels and the social event venues. This is the first BAQ wherein the participants will not have to ride buses from their hotels to the venue of the event.  The Organizing Committee of the BAQ has made it a point that the participants be housed in hotels which are near the venue to eliminate unecessary travel and CO2 emissions.  The venue for BAQ 2008, Imperial Queen's Park Hotel, is also a short walk away from the train station.  The total estimated distance travelled  for the shuttles was 500km, equivalent to  95kg CO2.

 

Bus travel
Cutting the need to  travel by bus just to get from the hotel to the BAQ venue will help cut CO2 emissions from the BAQ. Several institutions have estimated the g/km emissions of  buses, but mostly using samples from Europe. The CO2 emissions of bus travel range from 60-170 g/km.  WRI GHG Protocol estimates 0.19kg/km of  bus  travel within city and 0.05kg/km of long distance-bus travel.

Source: http://www.carbonindependent.org/sources_bus.htm and www.ghgprotocol.org

 

•  Implementing the cool-biz approach

The BAQ Organizing Committee will implement a cool-biz approach for BAQ 2008. This year, the organizers are encouraging the participants to wear light business attire (no coats, jackets and ties)  so they feel cool during the workshop while the temperatures of air conditioners are set at 26 degrees Celsius. It is fortunate that during the month of November, the average temperature  in Bangkok is about 27 degrees Celsius.