Sustainability at the ANZSN 2023 ASM

The ANZSN recognises the enormity of the threat that climate and other environmental change pose to human health, including kidney health. Because of this, it is committed to embedding environmental sustainability into its operations, including achieving net zero carbon emissions from organisational activities by 2030.

Meetings and academic conferences are important for learning, skill development, knowledge sharing and building and sustaining our relationships. However, they also typically involve substantial travel, high consumption of resources (e.g., materials, energy, water) and generate large amounts of waste.

We wish to demonstrate kaitiakitanga (stewardship and protection) to our environment while we whakawhanaungatanga (meet to learn and kōrero (talk)).

In organising the 2023 ANZSN ASM, the local organising committee is working to reduce the environmental impact of our meeting as far as possible. This includes but is not limited to;

• choosing a venue that is built to a NZBC Green Star 5-star rating, with 85% of the energy used in the building from renewable sources, and the remainder offset.
• assessing our food decisions, including sourcing at least 60% of our food and beverage needs from within Canterbury, so that we can reduce our footprint, while showcasing the best of our region. The remainder of our produce will be sourced from the wider South Island in the first instance, followed by the North Island. We will include plant-based menus.
• selecting accommodation venues within walking distance of the ASM venue.
• our venue packaging will be compostable with the venue aiming to be a 100% plastic free venue (subject to new legislation around food service/safety requirements in a post COVID-19 operation).
• aiming for zero waste
• printing of posters on paper rather than corflute
• all food waste shall be processed in Te Paes onsite GAIA dehydrator. The system converts food waste into a nutrient-rich compost-style material, which will be donated to local market gardens and schools. The end goal being that Te Pae will then purchase produce from them.
• food from events that is suitable to be reused will be donated to the Christchurch City Mission to distribute to their patrons as appropriate.
• reducing printed programs and other printed materials
• delegate flights: Whilst offsetting is a last resort – given that the meeting is being held in NZ, requiring flights for most attendees – we also encourage attendees to consider carbon offsetting their flights when booking.  We are aware this is a personal choice and remains entirely a personal decision.

We know though that even with maximum effort, it will never be possible to reduce a meeting’s impact to zero. Because of this, we are offering attendees the opportunity to contribute to offsetting the carbon emissions the meeting will generate when they register for the conference. Carbon offsetting is the practice of voluntarily choosing to compensate for any emissions incurred by purchasing carbon offsets or credits which then go towards a project helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere.

We will be working with environmental professionals to carefully select which carbon offset program to support to ensure the purchasing of credits leads to positive environmental and/or social outcomes. Some programs have been justifiably criticised for a lack of transparency and/or causing more harm than good.

We thank you for your support of our efforts to make our meeting as environmentally responsible as possible and welcome any feedback the green measures we are incorporating, including improvements that might be made in future meetings.

Ngā mihi mahana (thank you)

SPARC and the Local Organising Committee