Virtual expos cut carbon emissions 99pc
Published on: Monday, August 16, 2021
By: David Thien
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A virtual guide to brief visitors through the virtual portal experience tour.
Kota Kinabalu: Virtual events like the first Sabah Virtual Property Expo can help to reduce carbon emissions by 99 per cent, compared to many past events that require attendees to travel to the event destination, sometimes internationally for major conferences and trade shows.A participant, Johnny Wong, told Daily Express:
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“There are clearly a huge number of practical and ecological benefits of hosting an event online during this pandemic time.
“Other than the convenience to visitors of it being available 24/7, there is no travel required to visit a virtual conference or exhibition, other than reaching for an iPad, PC or mobile.”
It was reported that a typical attendee at a conference produces an average of 1.8kg of waste per day, 1.18kg of which goes directly to a landfill.
While event sustainability is not very much on everybody’s mind in Sabah, unlike profitability, with the world now 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels and is on course to the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees, the UN’s Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that the human-caused climate crisis is worsening extreme weather around the globe.
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Human greenhouse gas emissions have already triggered more intense and more frequent hot weather extremes, according to the report.
There is a current heat wave experienced in Sabah expected to last until September, affecting urban areas with concrete structures that are hotspots. Malaysia has a 76.61 per cent urbanisation rate and this urban sprawl is building up more heat hotspots.Some expo organisers said the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq) for a single three-day, mid-size trade show is nearly 6,000 tonnes, which would amount to millions of tonnes globally per annum.
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They added that a three-day conference with 800 attendees had a carbon footprint of 455 tonnes of CO2 equivalents (CO2-eq), corresponding to an average of 0.57 tonnes CO2-eq per participant.
The main contributors to emissions are travel activities, which accounted for a total of 378 tonnes CO2-eq or 0.47 tonnes CO2-eq per attendee.
These are followed by hotel overnight stays (39 tonnes CO2-eq in total) and catering (20 tonnes CO2-eq, 0.25 tonnes CO2-eq per individual).
The latest global data shows that the property sector generated 980,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2019, the fifth lowest of all sectors and considerably lower than the 88,395,000 generated by the electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply unit sector – the worst offending of all sectors.
However, the electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply unit sector has also seen the biggest reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the last decade, down by a notable -47.4 per cent.
An additional 12 other sectors have also managed to reduce their impact on the environment in this time.
Unfortunately, seven sectors have seen an increase, the property sector being one of them. Greenhouse gas emissions produced by the property sector have increased by 10.8 per cent in the last 10 years, the accommodation and food services sector (11 per cent), the construction sector (12.6 per cent) and the activities of households as the employers’ sector (14.7 per cent).
It is recommended that staging virtual events as a way to slash emissions, suggesting that estate agents could save 3,216 tonnes of C02 in a single year across the hundreds of thousands of property sales that take place.
Utilising a virtual platform could also bring greater benefit when it comes to the numerous property conferences and meetings held every year.
Research found that holding just one conference of 1,000 people in a digital capacity could cut carbon emissions by nearly 95 per cent – enough to power 17 homes for a whole year.
Of course, remote working also plays a part should the property sector stick with some form of it in life after the pandemic. Recent research also highlighted how prior to the pandemic, the total carbon saving of an employee was just 272kg, but as a result of remote working during the pandemic, this climbed to a huge 889kg.
James Lim, a Green Council panel expert, said:
“Although the property sector may not be the worst offender in terms of its detrimental impact on the environment, it’s disappointing to see that there has been an increase in greenhouse gas emissions over the course of the last 10 years.
“In this day and age, there is a wealth of information and technology available to us that could, and would, allow us to reduce our carbon footprint and so there’s really no excuse for failing to address this issue head-on.”
“A lengthy stint of remote working from homes has proven that great people utilising great technology can keep the world turning and incorporating this permanently within the industry could make a real difference to the planet.”
“Of course, some form of physical workplace and activity can never be replicated digitally but we would urge everyone within the sector to consider what sort of balance could work for them on an ongoing basis.”
Almost everything we do has an environmental footprint. When we are in the digital sphere, we still have an environmental footprint, but it’s lesser. This is largely the emissions from energy consumed to power the internet and the devices we use. Only about two per cent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions come from the world-wide web.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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