Sustainability

To do our part in the fight against climate change, the Local Organizing Committee has implemented a number of measures to promote sustainability, including:

  • Providing a city-wide public transit ticket with registration
  • Avoiding single-use plastics and other disposables
  • Offering only vegetarian food for the banquet, breaks, icebreaker, etc.
  • Reducing waste associated with informational materials
  • Collecting bottles for the deposit system (Pfand)
  • Following energy-saving measures for the conference venue

What Can You Do?

Transit

Transit is one of the leading sources of carbon emissions, especially for international conferences. To put this in perspective and attach some quantitative data, here is a comparison of the carbon emissions (in kg CO2) for a few hypothetical trips using different modes of travel:

Carbon emissions from transatlantic flights between Chicago and Frankfurt

Carbon emissions from various modes of transit between London/Paris and Frankfurt

Chicago to Frankfurt1

  • Direct economy flight = 2600
  • Two legs economy flight = 2900 (via Copenhagen)
  • Direct business flight = 10,200

London to Frankfurt2

  • Train = 13.8
  • Car = 83.2
  • Flight = 133

Paris to Frankfurt2

  • Train = 13.5
  • Car = 66.8
  • Flight = 112

To reduce your carbon footprint, you can do the following:

When traveling to and from Frankfurt, opt to use trains or buses. If these options are not practical and you must fly, choose the most direct flight you can and fly economy class. Take-off and landing consume more fuel making multi-leg flights problematic. Flying economy class ensures the plane is carrying more passengers, so the emissions per passenger are reduced. You may also choose to offset your emissions, although it is always better to avoid them in the first place.

While in Frankfurt, opt to travel by foot or else using public transit. For routes not well-covered by public transit, consider using an electric scooter or bike through any of the shared services (e.g., Lime, Voi, Call a Bike). Avoid ride sharing or renting a car.

Lodging

Beyond following standard energy- and water-saving measures, you can further reduce your environmental impact by opting for eco-hotels. Here are some options. Note that Motel One Frankfurt-Römer is included on this list and is also one of the conference hotels.

Reducing Waste

To further reduce waste, you might consider bringing you own thermos or mug for hot drinks. During check-in, you will receive a MetSoc water bottle which we hope you will use for the duration of the conference. Jugs will be available for refilling water, but you can also use tap water, including from restroom faucets. In Germany, drinking water regulations are very strict, which means the tap water is both safe and delicious.

Germany uses a fairly comprehensive recycling system. As such, many plastic and glass bottles qualify for a deposit (or Pfand). More details are available here. When you buy a beverage, you pay a deposit which is included in the price. To receive your deposit back, you must return the bottle to a collection machine located in any grocery store. The machine will print out a receipt which you then hand to a cashier. To check if your bottle has a deposit/Pfand, look for the word “Mehrwegflasche” or one of the symbols shown. We will collect deposit/Pfand bottles in case you would rather not deal with the hassle of returning them but would like to contribute to reducing waste and protecting the environment.