A COMPARISON OF THE LIFE CYCLE IMPACTS OF IN-PERSON, VIRTUAL, AND HYBRID MODES OF ACADEMIC CONFERENCES: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE MANAGEMENT UNDERGRADUATES’ RESEARCH SESSION, SABARAGAMUWA UNIVERSITY OF SRI LANKA

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