Sustaining the Faculty's Future

As well as a new look conference this year, the Faculty is embarking on the first ever carbon audit of its annual event. Urgent action is needed by public health to tackle the climate change crisis – and the Faculty has to play its part; we need to understand the impact of our business on the environment. In short, we need to get our own house in order. And you can help us do it.

What will we audit?

With the carbon audit, we'll be measuring five key areas:

• Waste: - how much waste is produced and how it is disposed of (eg. recycling, landfill etc)
• Food: - how much food was used, how much of it was sourced locally and how much was organic
• Water: - a metre reading will be taken at the start of the conference and after it finishes
• Energy: - metre readings for gas, electricity, etc will be taken before the meeting and after it finishes
• Transport: - all delegates, staff and conference organisers will be asked to complete a questionnaire on how they got to the conference and how far they travelled

Playing your part

We have sent out an online travel questionaire to find out how you travelled to and from the conference. It should only take a few minutes of your time but the outcome will help shape how we organise future – greener – conferences.

You can also play your part at the actual conference – recycle bins will be provided for unwanted programmes and fliers, and this will be the last year we will be handing out delegate bags – so if you don't want yours, please make sure you hand it back to a member of staff.

There's also a session on sustainable development and climate change where we will be outlining other ways in which the Faculty is trying to ‘go greener'. And you can also email us what you think we should be doing.