Online meetings are much greener: is that all that matters?

A delegate who physically attends a conference will produce around 40 times more carbon emissions than someone engaging online, according to a new study.

The report, produced by engineering firm WSP and commissioned by virtual event provider 6Connex, looked at seven virtual events with an average of 6,900 delegates.

These events included an academic healthcare conference attended by close to 10,000; a women’s leadership conference with 8,800 attendees, and a sales conference with 560 participants.

The study then calculated the carbon emissions that would have been produced by these events if they had been in person. The results indicated that factors such as transportation, waste, and energy consumption of an in-person event produced 40 times more emissions than a virtual event attended by the same number of delegates.