Sustainability

As a conference, we are not climate neutral. However, we lower our impact on the environment as much as possible, Inspired by the 8 R’s: Recycle - Refuse - Reduce - Reuse - Repair - Regift - Recover - Rethink. We welcome feedback on how to improve. Here are our current initiatives:

Venue

• We favour venues that are easily reachable by public transport. This year's venue, the Elisabeth Hall, is located next to the Train Station of Antwerp.
• We favour hotels with a Green Key Label.

Catering

• Our buffet is 100% plant-based. Vegan options are also standard available.
• We closely estimate our food amount through a careful headcount to minimise waste. We create awareness with our attendees to not throw away food. Our catering-partner donates the leftover food, where hygienic requirements allow, to a local charity.
• Drinks are offered in porcelain and glassware. We provide water bottles with tap water.
• We discussed thoroughly with our caterer the use of reusable plates. However, for this year, we are not able to provide all of our food on reusable plates. Where needed, we will use 100% biodegradable disposables that compost within 90 days and therefore meet the EN13432 standard. Of course, the sustainable use of disposables depends on a good collection and recycling.
• We provide bio straws.
• We use recycled napkins.

Recycling

• During the conference we optimize waste processing and recycling. We have separate trash cans with bio compostable garbage bags, for all compostables. We also have separate paper bins.
• We reuse leftover swag as marketing materials.
• We donate leftover paper and banners to companies who repurpose them.

Logistics

• Our T-shirts are 100% bio cotton.
• We work with suppliers that print without chemical ink.
• We wash and reuse materials such as staff shirts, lanyards, ...
• We order recycled paper: sticky notes, program booklets, ...
• As a speaker gift, we invest in trees for a agroforestry project and build further on our growing DDD Europe-forest year by year.

Waste

• We try to avoid waste. We measure the waste we produce, so we can improve this yearly.

Travel

• We're a remote-first company, and use public transport where possible.
• We book travel for our speakers so we can offer more sustainable alternatives (such as trains) instead of flights. For DDD Europe 2023, thanks to the effort of our speakers and staff, 50% is coming in by flight, compared to 75% in DDD Europe 2022. (Usually the flights are booked because of the long distance or intercontinental travel).
• We encourage our participants to come by train if possible. Antwerp has good train connections to Amsterdam, London, Paris,...
• We inform our participants about carpool-options.
• We carbon offset the flights we book yearly. Here you can find here the Certificate for Offsetting a previous edition's travel, by which we supported efficient cookstoves in Ghana to avoid deforestation.

2024

2023