Abstract:
1. Introduction
This study quantifies the environmental impacts of academic conferences
by comparing the life cycle impacts of In-Person, Virtual, and Hybrid
conferences with different features. The study aims to identify the
conference mode with the least environmental impact and improve its
efficacy. From this study, other universities and educational institutes can
obtain new approaches to organizing conferences in the future.
2. Research Methodology
The study used the quantitative research method and faculty version of
SimaPro to analyze the impact of the life cycles. The research gathered
primary data from interviewing the MURS 2023 conference secretary and
organizing committee members. Secondary data is collected from books
and research articles via online databases. Thus, the MURS 2023
conference was Hybrid and, based on the assumptions, carried out the In-
person and Virtual conferences for the study for the same year.
3. Findings and Discussion
The results show that in all aspects, the virtual conference mode has the
least environmental impact. Especially among the most significant
categories, Human carcinogenic toxicity, which contributes to human
cancer, global warming potential, which may cause climate change, and
water footprint is low in virtual conferences compared to in-person
conferences, resulting in no-emission through the air and no-water usage
of the physical venue, catering, sanitization, and accommodation. The
environmental impact of In-person conference contribution per abstract
was reported as 1.512. The environmental impact of virtual conference
contribution per abstract was reported as 0.018.
4. Conclusion and Implications
According to these results, the Virtual mode has the least environmental
impact on academic conferences. Also, researchers suggested
recommendations for the efficacy of that specific mode of conducting the
conferences virtually
