The VIB Conferences team organizes several scientific conferences and events in Flanders each year. These conferences bring together renowned scientists from academia and industry from all over the world. These gatherings inherently involve transportation, energy consumption, and waste. To minimize their impact, we select partners who take targeted measures to reduce their environmental footprint.
Socially responsible partners
We are dedicated to choosing suppliers who are fully committed to a more sustainable world.
1. Catering with a heart
We choose caterers who prioritize local products, the reuse of surpluses such as Foodsavers, fair trade and plastic-free products, and travel by bicycle or electric cars. This is why Coeur catering is our regular partner.
2. Eco-friendly accommodation
We choose hotels with an eco-label such as Green Key, if available. This label guarantees a reduction of the ecological footprint in addition to comfort. Park Inn by Radisson in Leuven has this label and is a regular partner for example.
3. Every mile counts
Transport accounts for more than 80% of an event's environmental impact. We encourage our visitors to use public transport or to carpool whenever possible.
4. Green conference bags
For our conference materials, we choose ecological options. To save paper, we no longer print the full program booklet. We only print the program day schedule on responsibly sourced wood fiber (FSC) paper. At an average of 160 pages per booklet, this means we save roughly 48,000 printed pages per conference. Furthermore, the attendee badges are reused, and the complimentary goodies are in part selected based on their environmental impact.
To fill our conference bags, we partner with a sheltered workplace to contribute to a more inclusive society.
