ASrIA aims to make its operations as sustainable as we possibly can and this goes for the annual conference too. We took the guidelines for running a sustainable event from "How To Plan A Sustainable Event" (Concern, Inc., www.sustainable.org / www.swampnet.org) and this is how we did:

1. Getting Started: Although we did not explicitly commit to being a sustainable event at the outset we did select contractors with sustainability features.

2. Plan the event: We chose a site near public transport, we didn't find out whether facility managers operate sustainable practices. We did not consult a list of green hotels, the top priority was to have accomodation near to the conference venue.

3. The Presenters: We identified as many local presenters as possible. Given the themes covered in the conference it was necessary to bring people from other countries in the region and further afield. We used email (rather than paper) to gather bios & photos and we published presentations on the web, not in paper form.

4. Publicity & Registration: We provided online registration and distributed publicity info by email. This year we chose not to publish a conference flyer.

5. Event Materials: We did not use eco-paper for all the conference materials, or print double sided as much as we could. However we kept the conference pack to the minimum and did not have a folder or other 'packaging' which is often disgarded once the conference is over. Name tag holders were collected at the end of the conference.

6. Food Service: It is difficult to get organic food in Singapore, similarly composting is limited. We did talk with all the caterers (Goodwood, Indochine & cocktail caterers) & explained that we were trying to assess how well we'd done in making the event sustainable. This was a rather alien concept to most! As organic food is limited and expensive and most food is imported due to Singapore's lack of locally produced food, it was difficult to do well on these matters. Vegetarian options were available for all meals.

7. Site Amenities, Signage & Program: All the locations we chose had special features: Burkill Hall - eco-friendly building and location in the heart of Singapore's Botanic Gardens, Indochine Restaurant - strong environmental policies and does not sell shark's fin soup, Goodwood - supporting heritage as Singapore's 2nd oldest hotel.

8. Giving Back: Making the event carbon neutral goes a long way to doing this. We calculated that the conference resulted in 140 tonnes of carbon emissions and committed to offsetting these through the Future Forests scheme.
      

9. At the event: We could have been more explicit to delegates about our efforts. We did calculate the event's carbon emissions and committed to making it carbon neutral. Gifts to speakers were shirts made in Indonesia from a fair trade ecological source. All recommended hotels were walking distance to the conference venue, to avoid taxis we arranged buses for delegates to transfer to the reception venue. 

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