School of Dentistry, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
University College London Hospital, London, England, UK.
Cardiol Young. 2021 Oct;31(10):1625-1632. doi: 10.1017/S1047951121000718. Epub 2021 Mar 9.
Webinars have recently replaced in-person medical conferences, including paediatric cardiology conferences, given the COVID-19 pandemic.
With increasing environmental concerns, we analysed the differences between the environmental footprint of a paediatric cardiology webinar with a hypothetical conference. Travel data was collected, with assumptions made on the amount of computer use, internet use and accordingly the overall use of electricity for both forms of conference. Life Cycle Assessment methodology was used (OpenLCA and Ecovinvent v 3.7).
We showed that the theoretical environmental impact of a virtual conference is significantly less (4 tons CO2 equivalent) than the traditional international face-to-face conference (192 tons CO2 equivalent). The life cycle assessment methodology showed that resource use for a face-to-face conference lasting 2.5 days for 1374 attendees is equivalent to 400 times what an average person would use in one year, the climate change and photochemical ozone formation approximately 250 times and the eutrophication terrestrial equivalent to 225 times. However, using carbon equivalent emissions to measure environmental harm from flying is an under estimate of the potential damage, when one considers the additional production of airplane contrails. Notwithstanding this, there is a 98% reduction in climate change impact when meetings are held virtually.
While the virtual conference may never completely replace the traditional in-person paediatric cardiology conference, due to networking benefits, the significant theoretical benefits to the environment highlighted in this study, warrants consideration for the virtual conference taking a more common place in sustainable academia.
鉴于 COVID-19 大流行，网络研讨会最近已经取代了现场医学会议，包括儿科心脏病学会议。
随着环境问题的日益加剧，我们分析了儿科心脏病学网络研讨会与假设会议的环境足迹之间的差异。收集了旅行数据，并对计算机使用量、互联网使用量以及这两种会议形式的总用电量进行了假设。使用生命周期评估方法（OpenLCA 和 Ecovinvent v 3.7）。
我们表明，虚拟会议的理论环境影响明显较小（4 吨二氧化碳当量），而传统的国际面对面会议（192 吨二氧化碳当量）。生命周期评估方法表明，为期 2.5 天、有 1374 名与会者参加的面对面会议的资源使用量相当于一个普通人一年使用量的 400 倍，气候变化和光化学臭氧形成相当于 250 倍，富营养化陆地相当于 225 倍。然而，用碳排放当量来衡量飞行对环境的危害是对潜在破坏的低估，因为人们考虑到了飞机尾迹的额外产生。尽管如此，当会议以虚拟方式举行时，气候变化的影响将减少 98%。
虽然虚拟会议可能永远无法完全取代传统的儿科心脏病学现场会议，但由于网络的好处，以及本研究中突出的对环境的重大理论益处，值得考虑在可持续学术领域中更频繁地采用虚拟会议。
