How to assess events’ environmental impacts: a uniform life cycle approach

Toscani, Antonio Cavallin; Macchion, Laura; Stoppato, Anna; Vinelli, Andrea

doi:10.1080/09669582.2021.1874397

Cited by 14 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Getz (2009) proposes applying the triple‐bottom‐line approach to festivals and events. Recent tools are sustainable event management and environmental certification of events (Cavallin Toscani et al, 2022; Guizzardi et al, 2017), with a specific international standard (ISO 20121 “Event sustainability management systems”). However, all these voluntary schemes do not substitute for EIA, as they are private initiatives and partial, and not a proved and transparent precautionary instrument.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact assessment of temporary activities and events

Enríquez‐de‐Salamanca

Díaz‐Sierra

2023

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

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Temporary activities and events may have significant environmental impacts. However, they are often outside the scope of environmental assessment (EA) processes. Environmental requirements in authorization processes of activities are rare, except for some major events in sensitive areas. This article analyzes, first, the environmental impacts of outdoor temporary activities and events through a literature review; all the analyzed activities may have significant negative impacts. Then, the authorization of temporary activities, and their inclusion in EA systems, in a sample of jurisdictions worldwide was analyzed. Applying EA processes is more an exception than a rule for temporary activities. The article discusses the factors that influence activities' impacts, the conflict between precaution and operation, and the benefits and drawbacks of the application of different EA schemes to temporary activities, concluding with some proposals to improve the consideration of environmental aspects in activities' authorization. Before the authorization of activities and events, their environmental impacts should be analyzed and taken into account. This can be achieved through regulations in management plans submitted to strategic EA, through screening processes, or through environmental impact assessment when significant impacts are expected. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2023;00:1–13. © 2023 SETAC

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact assessment of temporary activities and events

Enríquez‐de‐Salamanca

Díaz‐Sierra

2023

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

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“…We further integrated input from Cavallin Toscani et al. (2022), who provided a comprehensive life cycle representation for any type of event. Figure 1 shows the resulting LCA model.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Differently from Tao et al. (2021), indeed, we opted here for a “ control ” approach (Cavallin Toscani et al., 2022), where only activities under the control of conference organizers are considered, as further discussed in Section 3.4.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To define the system boundary, we mostly referred to Neugebauer et al (2020) and Tao et al (2021), the only studies that considered the overall life cycle impacts of academic conferences. We further integrated input from Cavallin Toscani et al (2022), who provided a comprehensive life cycle representation for any type of event. Figure 1 shows the resulting LCA model.…”

Section: System Boundarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Its exclusion from our assessment depends on another criterion we adopted, that is, the unclear allocation of impact responsibility to the conference-valid also for items (e) and (g). Differently from Tao et al ( 2021), indeed, we opted here for a "control" approach (Cavallin Toscani et al, 2022), where only activities under the control of conference organizers are considered, as further discussed in Section 3.4.…”

Section: System Boundarymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Life cycle assessment of in‐person, virtual, and hybrid academic conferences: New evidence and perspectives

Toscani

Atasu

Wassenhove

et al. 2023

J of Industrial Ecology

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This study contributes to the debate on the environmental impacts of academic conferences by comparing the life cycle impacts of a sample of real‐world in‐person, virtual, and hybrid conferences with different features and organizers. Results show that virtual formats reduce impacts by two to three orders of magnitude across all impact categories (for global warming, averagely from 941.9 to 1.0 kg CO2eq per person). The hybrid case study, with a share of 69% virtual attendees, displays an average 60% reduction in indicator results, less than ideal cases where the farthest attendees join online. The cross‐conference comparison allowed identifying several drivers of impact variation. For in‐person conferences, some never addressed drivers were uncovered, including the energy sources and systems used to supply the venue or the number of non‐local staff members and exhibitors. For virtual conferences, the main impact driver is the average time spent online by delegates, surprisingly more related to virtual experience design (e.g., synchronous vs. asynchronous presentations) than conference duration. The study further summarizes mitigation options from the literature and proposes new ones, such as selecting a venue supplied by a biomass‐fueled district heating system or with a green electricity contract (around −41 and −1.9 kg CO2eq per person, respectively). Lastly, our work highlights some inconsistencies that affect current conference assessments and proposes new research avenues, advocating the need to shift the focus from optimizing single conferences to considering the optimal portfolio of conferences and other activities for academic societies to meet their members’ needs while minimizing environmental impacts.

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