This question is about what I call academic conference centers, by which I mean research centers whose purpose is to welcome international researchers for short-term thematic stays. Examples of such centers in mathematics and theoretical computer science include Dagstuhl, Oberwolfach, and the CIRM (not a complete list). These centers are specifically for academic researchers (i.e., they are not general-purpose hotels or convention centers), and typically have a scientific board who select which events to organize from a list of proposals submitted by reseachers. I'm sure similar centers exist in other fields that I'm less familiar with.
Given that international travel by plane significantly contributes to climate change, some researchers and research groups are trying to limit their plane travel, in particular short international trips. My question is: what are academic conference centers doing to mitigate the climate impact of the activities that they organize?
Specifically, CIRM is now advertising two measures intended to reduce the carbon footprint of their events:
- Fortnight events, where they encourage event organizers to couple their one-week event at CIRM together with another adjacent week, e.g., for a conference, so that participants stay for two weeks instead of one.
- Mirror conferences, where they encourage conference proposals intended to organize simultaneous events co-hosted between CIRM and another such center elsewhere in the world, with participants attending by traveling to the closest local hub.
Another example are centers who aim at welcoming researchers over longer periods, e.g., a semester-long sabbatical, like the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing.
I was interested whether similar initiatives existed in academic conference centers in other academic fields.
