INTERNATIONAL SOLID WASTE ASSOCIATION - Denkstatt

5. Environment
ISWA promotes international sustainable waste management
and thus has a positive indirect impact on the
global environment. Nevertheless, its activities also have
some direct negative ecological impacts. These are
especially connected to the international conferences.
The highest direct impacts are connected to CO2-emissions
caused by flights. Another aspect is sustainable
waste management in the conference hotels. Of course,
all these negative impacts are minor compared to the
overall positive effects of ISWA. Nevertheless, this report
also shows how ISWA strives to minimize its direct
negative impacts on the environment.
Climate protection
Most CO2-emissions produced in relation to conferences
are caused by the flights of the delegates. The travel
carbon emissions of ISWA World Conferences range
from 2,158 tons CO2 (2008) to 1,195 tons CO2 (2009).
The average value per delegate is 1.8 tons CO2 for Amster-
dam and Lisbon and 3.4 tons CO2 for Singapore 1 .
As an illustration, the CO2 emissions of the flights to
the World Congress in Lisbon are equal to the electricity
consumption of 857 average households (4 persons)
in one year in Austria 2 .
For an international organisation like ISWA it is not
possible to completely do without flights. Nevertheless,
some air travel can be avoided: In some instances exchange
within the Working Groups and most of the interviews
for the International Waste Manager Program
already take place via telephone and video conferences.
If flights cannot be avoided, offsetting of emissions
is another option: The ISWA Beacon Conference on Biological
Treatment of Waste in Perugia 2008 was
organized as a carbon neutral event.The World Congress
2009 in Lisbon took place at a Carbon Free Event Place.
Travel Carbon Emission ISWA World Congresses 2007 – 2009
2,500 4.0
2,158
3.5
Total CO2-emissions of all flights (tons CO2)
2,000
1,500
1,000
1,256
1.8
3.4
1,195
1.8
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
Carbon Emission per Delegate (tons CO2)
500
1.0
28
0.5
–
Amsterdam
2007
Singapore
2008
Lisbon
2009
0.0
Total CO2-emissions of all flights (tons)
Average CO2-emissions per delegate (tons)
1 )
The calculation is based on www.atmosfair.de. If the home city of a delegate was unknown, the calculation was based on travelling
from the capital of his/her home country. For small countries with several airports a median distance was used for the calculation.
Delegates from the host country are not included in the calculation.
2 )
Umweltkontrollbericht, GEMIS-Österreich 4.5, Lifecycle CO2 Äquivalent Strompark Österreich plus Importe