Workplace: Conferences going online helps reduce carbon footprint by 94%

Virtual conferences have many advantages, and remain less intensive in terms of greenhouse gas emissions than face-to-face meetings. Photo: AFP

Moving meetings and conferences fully online could reduce their carbon footprint by 94%, according to an American study. It’s a considerable reduction, and one that’s largely due to removing transport from the equation.

Since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, event organisers and companies have been forced to make their conferences and meetings virtual. This shift from face-to-face to online meetings has unsurprisingly brought benefits for the environment. Researchers at Cornell University in the United States have put a number on these benefits. They estimate that holding a conference online instead of in-person could “substantially reduce the carbon footprint by 94%”.