Sustainability Policy

Conversation Eastercon 2023 Sustainability Plan and Policy.

Conversation will strive to be a sustainable convention. We are working with the Hilton Birmingham Metropole which has its own policies which can be found at https://esg.hilton.com/environment/.

Travel

  • The convention commits to reducing travel by holding the majority of committee and staff meetings online.
  • When not online meetings are accessible by public transport, and the convention itself is readily accessible by train. We encourage our committee, volunteers and members to use public transport wherever practicable.
  • The convention is hybrid so that those for whom travel is a barrier can nevertheless participate online.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

  • Convention information will be disseminated electronically as the default option; paper alternatives may be requested.
  • Convention publications will be published in as sustainable a way as possible, and we’ll try and establish actual likely demand before assuming that every member wants a copy of everything.
  • Badges and tokens made for single use will be made of paper or metal that can be recycled wherever possible. (Membership badges may be the exception to this as there are many other considerations involved.)
  • Convention merchandise will be offered after taking these considerations into account.
  • The convention requests that people do not bring leaflets but instead request advertising space on the web site or in the convention publications. (If you need printed matter, business cards seem to be rather less likely to be abandoned.)
  • The convention will not provide bags for the dealers’ room and requests that members of the convention bring in spare totes to donate to the space (taking as they need).
  • We cannot avoid using lanyards and badges, but we will be reusing lanyards and badges from previous conventions as far as possible. Afterwards please hand in all lanyards, pronoun and access-related badges that you do not actively want for passing on to the next Eastercon.
  • We will avoid lamination of signs and notices as far as possible.
  • The Hilton hotel recycles where possible with a recycling area at the back of the building.

Sustainability

  • Food choices are personal but we will work with the venue to provide meat-free options, both to support vegans and vegetarians and to reduce our own material footprint.
  • We will try to avoid or minimise the use of disposable plastic wherever possible for materials we use and supply at the con. Members are encouraged to bring the reusable water bottles/hot drink travel mugs that they usually use.
  • The Hilton hotel has a commitment to Zero Carbon for the convention.
  • We will use a printer that is committed to mitigate CO2 emissions from the production and distribution of paper and materials.

This is a living document and was last updated: 14 March 2023