Europe’s biggest optical communication conference to be held in Gothenburg
On 17–21 September 2017, Gothenburg will host the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC). This will be the 43rd conference in succession and is the largest conference in Europe in the field of optical communication. This year, for the first time, the conference will be environmentally certified.
This is the third time ECOC will be held in Sweden, and the second time at the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre in Gothenburg. The conference is an opportunity for over 1,000 researchers and product developers to catch up on leading research achievements and scientific discoveries in the field of optical communication. A large exhibition will take place in parallel with the conference and is expected to attract up to 5,000 delegates from around the world.
Gothenburg is a great choice for hosting sustainable meetings
In an effort to reduce environmental impact the organisers of this year’s conference have for the first time chosen to environmentally certify the conference to Swedish Environmental Base (Svensk Miljöbas) criteria. This is an important part of the city’s environmental profile, since Gothenburg is ranked as one of the world’s leading destinations for sustainable meetings*. A number of the measures that led to environmental certification focus on catering. The ECOC organisers have for instance chosen to serve fish that is fished sustainably (MSC labelled), fewer meals contain meat and there is always a vegetarian option at lunchtime. All coffee and tea that are served are organically sourced and Fairtrade labelled. All sandwiches have at least two organic main ingredients.
The organisers are also buying credits to partially offset travel by the delegates to and from Gothenburg. Because the conference venue – the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre – is located close to the city centre, visitors can easily walk to hotels and social events, and thus avoid the environmental effects of transport.
Conferences generally have considerable environmental impact. Environmental certification is encouraged by the city and helps to promote the development of sustainability efforts. It is hoped that more conferences will follow the same route and choose environmental certification as a way of making an effective difference and contributing to global sustainability goals.
More details about environmental certification and the work of ECOC can be found at http://ecoc2017.org/general-info/sustainability/
ECOC 2017 is organised by Chalmers University of Technology, the Technical University of Denmark, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden Acreo, Telia and Ericsson. The conference organiser is Sweden MEETX.
* GLOBAL DESTINATION SUSTAINABILITY INDEX 2016. Read more.