How green is my university?

Universities and the Higher Education sector in general should find ways to hold virtual conferences in order to avoid flying all around the globe for just a few days. I wonder about the Carbon Footprint of the THE World Academic Summit this week in Zurich. It must have been massive. Aren't there more climate friendly ways to meet and exchange?

I love it when we have climate change conferences - in far flung placves like Bali, where you have to, err, fly to. Cobferebces you could actually do by Skype videoconferencing maybe? OK we miss a nice summer holiday in Bali (funny these conferences are never somewhere central like Berlin in February?). Meanwhile a large source of university carbon emissions will be staff commuting. The prevalence of shirt term contracts, combined with a broken housing market, means many staff commute long distances, and have to do so by car. How about universities have a pool of staff flats, or at least some hotel-self-catering accommodation, with good security so crime, noise, is kept down, so staff car mileage can be reduced. I'm sure the VC could take a 100k in salary to help finance this.

Those who prefer to act rather just demonstrate about the CO2 problem might wish to consider how simple it is to plant a tree.