Sustainability at the Big-Data.AI Summit
The Big-Data.AI Summit 2022 is carbon neutral
Sustainable event planning
The German Federal Office for Environment defines the term climate protection with a simple principle of action from forestry: Those who use natural resources should make sure that future generations can still benefit from them. For us, this means using resources responsibly and paying attention to environmentally friendly as well as efficient concepts. As the organiser of the Big-Data.AI Summit, we can therefore make an active contribution to climate protection by conserving resources, saving energy and helping to raise awareness of climate protection when executing the event.
Framework and strategy
The Sustainable Event Scorecard from visitBerlin is used as the basis for action and evaluation of the sustainability of Bitkom events. This provides an overview of the measures achieved for each event. It is based on existing established frameworks and standards. These include the German "Guidelines for the sustainable organization of events" of the German Federal Office for Environment and ISO 20121 - sustainable events.
Based on the 13 fields of action and 47 possible measures for a more sustainable realisation of events, we follow the strategy: avoid, reduce and compensate. The fields of action of event management range from travel to communication. Specific measures and KPIs are defined for each field of action. The individual measures are assessed with points that make it possible to make sustainable events measurable, comparable and transparent.
To ensure that we as Bitkom do our part to protect the climate, we implement strategies that make our events more sustainable. To do this, we are working with ClimatePartner to offset the CO2 emissions caused that we cannot avoid. If you wish, you can make a climate protection contribution when booking your event ticket. The principle of avoid, reduce, compensate also applies to us.
What this means for #BAS22
The Big-Data.AI Summit 2022 is carbon neutral. This means that, together with our partner ClimatePartner, we have calculated all the CO2 emissions that will be generated: From guest travel and the number of overnight stays to event technology and energy to food and beverages. We have offset these emissions via a high-quality, internationally recognized climate protection project.
The principle of carbon neutrality
Companies, processes and products are carbon neutral if their carbon emissions have been calculated and offset by supporting internationally verified carbon offset projects. As well as avoiding and reducing carbon emissions, offsetting is another crucial step in climate action. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide spread out evenly in the atmosphere, meaning that the greenhouse gas concentration is the same all over the world. It is therefore irrelevant when it comes to greenhouse gas concentration – and global warming – where the emissions are caused or avoided. Emissions that cannot be avoided and reduced at the source can therefore be offset elsewhere through carbon offset projects.
Our carbon offset project: Wind energy, De Aar, South Africa
Close to the town of De Aar in South Africa, 96 wind turbines have been producing an average of 439,600 MWh of electricity per year since 2017, which is being fed into the South African grid. The aim of the project is to harness the region's wind energy potential to balance its energy needs in a sustainable way.
The share of electricity now supplied by the wind farm would have otherwise been generated by fossil fuels. The wind power project avoids an average of 433,920 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. In addition to the environmental benefits, the project assists the local community by creating jobs and improving the infrastructure. The project supports local football clubs by funding equipment, events, travel and much more. It also provides financial funds to the Richmond Untied Ladies Football Club, the only female club in De Aar playing in the premier league. Find out more about this project here.
How wind energy contributes to climate action?
As the name suggests, wind turbines use the power of the wind to generate energy. During this process, a generator located inside the wind turbine converts kinetic energy into electrical energy. Fossil fuels are predominantly used in many regions over the world to generate power, however, it is preferable that a transition is made to the use of clean wind energy to reduce some of these carbon emissions because clean energy verifiably reduces CO2 emissions.
In most cases, the sustainably generated electricity from the wind power projects is fed into a regional power grid, which diversifies the power supply and improves energy security in regions that are frequently affected by power shortages and outages. A project often creates increased job opportunities for the local population and the area can be used for additional activities, such as agriculture. Wind power projects make an important contribution to a clean energy supply worldwide and contribute to sustainable development with respect to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
