Landscape 2021 conference offsets CO2 emissions with donation to a peatland conservation project

The Landscape 2021 conference held September 20-22, 2021 was hosted digitally due to the pandemic situation. By eliminating travel for conference guests and energy requirements at the venue, among other things, digital events have a smaller carbon footprint compared to an on-site event. Nevertheless, they are not entirely climate-neutral. Participants' devices, servers, data centers and data transmission consume electricity and thus generate greenhouse gas emissions.

An estimated total of around 1.845 kg of CO2 was emitted during the three days of the conference for the transmission of workshops, lectures and discussion rounds via video conference. The conference organizer, the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), has now offset these emissions.

During the registration process, participants could optionally top up their registration fees with a donation for CO2 compensation. This raised an amount of 320 euros. The conference team invested the donations in climate protection certificates of the project "MoorFutures", which correspond to a compensation of 5,000 kg CO2.

The collected donations will benefit a peatland protection project in the Königsmoor in Schleswig-Holstein. Here, groundwater levels are to be raised again on part of the area previously drained for agricultural use. This measure is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the soils there and restore the typical highland peat vegetation.

Landscape 2021 addressed to an international audience of experts from science, practice and politics. Around 420 participants from 43 countries took part in the conference.

The Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) e. V., as the organizer of the conference, has introduced an environmental management system certified according to the European standard EMAS since 2020. This includes a concept for reducing the ecological footprint of events.

Further information:

The CO2 emissions of the virtual conference "Landscape2021" were compensated by donations of the conference participants with an investment in the peatland protection project "MoorFutures". Source: Ausgleichsagentur Schleswig-Holstein.