• Website Admin, Hosting, etc

• Domain Name costs $20 for 2 years (www.34sp.com)
  • Someone currently owns sustainableinteraction.org or something like that which forwards to ubicomp site--can we ask about letting that forward to the main site as long as we link to ubicomp?
• Hosting costs $36 a year (www.34sp.com)
• Carl has a template, fully accessible and validated, which could be used (same one used to build www.userexperiencedesign.co.uk - see the main page only since I am still working on it). Conference committee is keen on accessibility
• Googlepages do not support CSS - can they be made accessible? Googlepages are free (including URL) and can be worked on before publishing live
• Conference committee wants to approve before we go live (email from Arnie)
• Who has skills?
  • Carl - HTML, XHTML, CSS, A little PHP, Dreamweaver, Accessibility (write markup by hand), SEO - but has no paid income yet!
  • Marcela - HTML, Dreamweaver, Googlepages
  • Who else?

CHI 2008 Environmental Efforts

Sustainability:  definition needed?

Advisory Board's Statement of Intent:

In concert with all communities of research and practice, we claim our responsibility to act towards a sustainable future and we intend to do so by (i) promoting environmental awareness and sound practices at CHI conferences and related venues, (ii) promoting sustainability as a distinguished issue in our research and practices, and (iii) striving to make the systemic effects of our innovations accordant with principles of sustainability.

Challenges

We provide the information below as options for conference attendees to consider in an effort to reduce the environmental impact of CHI 2008. We do not provide perfect solutions, but the options are likely a bit more sustainable than "conference attendance as usual".

Options for 2008

CONFERENCE TRAVEL - CHI 2008's Greatest Environmental Challenge!

[insert a factoid about the environmental cost of flying w/ link to more information]

Getting to CHI (Challenge yourself - what is the greenest way possible for you?)

• Bike across europe with Carl [link or Carl's email address?)
• Take the train or a boat (www.seat61.com; german train information)
• Cargo ship across the atlantic (links)
• Take a free ride on a cargo train (US, links?)
• Fly to a hub and then take a train, car pool, or short haul flight (link to info on the cost of flight from outliers)
• Solar Power Vehicles? (not sold on this one-lisa)       See  prorinnovabili.org  , an Italian group but has not responded to emails

Figuring out the environmental cost of your travel

• Calculate your travel carbon
  • Offset your carbon
  • Limitations to carbon offset

• How else is CHI 2008 green?

  • "Sustainability" is now a reviewer category and a keyword for papers
  • Local, Accessible, Transport ("We’ve been trying to make sure there is support for efficient local transportation (as well as working on accessibility, another important area to us)" (from Arnie)) (Florence is a very, very walkable city, but it is a bit of a maze, what would be fantastic is a blown up map of the city in the conference meeting area for people to study, plan outings, gatherings for meals, etc. We could also provide a link to a good electronic map of the city in our list of links below (from lisa)) (seems like the map link should be from the main site since that's basic conference survival, not sustainability (from Marcela))

     

  • Local food
  • Sustainable printing ("We’re working (Janee is) on buying locally for food and printing" (from Arnie)) NB: MUCH paper in the UK and Europe is illegally logged at source, see The Good Wood Guide by Georgina Magin)
  • Waste ("We’re working on trying to find a better way to handle the bags and the other often wasted products at the conference" (from Arnie))
    • conference bags?
    • biodegradable tableware
    • recycling bins
  • Award winning photographer Chris Jordan to exhibit his evocative photographs http://www.chrisjordan.com/
  • Sustainability survey (Eli) to be distributed before or at the conference (TBD) - what is this all about - carl?
  • Charity recycling old conference bags?? (can't remember person's name but there is someone who gathers them up each year)

Options Post Conference

What can I, a CHI person, do about Sustainability?

10 Ways to Green IT

1. Power it down: Set power options to power down monitor and hard disk when not in use. Use a network pc energy management tool to optimize your organization's electricity use.
2. Turn it off: Place all of your computing devices on a single power bar so it is easy to turn them all on or off.
3. Print sparingly: Choose double sided printing as default setting. Use a print optimization tool to reduce wasted paper.
4. Make IT last: Buy or make a protective case for your devices and consider purchasing refurbished products.
5. Upgrade carefully: Choose from environmentally forward thinking manufacturers and devices with an Energy Star label.
6. Exercise your influence: Support designs that are durable, long lasting, and easy to disassemble for material reuse.
7. Research before tossing: When disposing of devices look for services that handle e-waste in ecologically forward thinking ways.
8. Re-energize your website: Use an Internet Service Provider that uses energy efficient servers and alternate energy sources.
9. Trek off the grid: Use a solar bag to recharge your mobile devices.         (anyone got a link for the solar bag part?)
10. Apply your interaction knowledge: Design software that encourages ecologically responsible behavior.

Possibilities for Future Conferences

• Leed certified conference centers for the future use
• Holding conferences near airport hubs to reduce internal flights
• Select locations based on likely attendence profiles (reducing overall flight miles)

Links

• 2008 CHI Papers relating to sustainability  
  • Beyond the hype: Sustainability & HCI  http://www.chi2008.org/ap/65.html
  • Green Day Session :http://www.chi2008.org/ap/93.html
• CHI and Sustainability, CFPs and resources
• Other sustainability information, recycling technology, Climate Saver Computing, Carbon offsetting for travel
• Past activities (ubicomp workshop, CHI sig)
• Information about Google Group Mailing List and how to get involved
• Features on CHI community efforts (frog design, Eli's paper, etc) Digital Eskimo on sustainable design http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGzj8MSDixE
• Committee - interested in joining?                  
• Online Activism (Green Ribbon Pledge, TheRainForestSite.com, EcologyFund.com, Union of Concerned Scientists etc)
• Amazon strip on side with recommended books?

• Dont know where this fits in - not keen to encourage consumerism!
  • Links to merchandise (Smitty, 10 Green IT t-shirts or mugs?)
  • Graphics: Smitty pictures, Green Ribbon Pledge, CHI 2008 Leonardo logos, pictures from Ubicomp workshop

(Note from Lisa: I removed the statements below b/c I believe the audience for this website is VERY aware of "greenwash" and may suspect our efforts as being of that ilk. Thus, my initial attempts in some of the text above to note that we are well aware of the limitations of our knowledge - but are attempting to do the best we can with what we do know. Regarding the "stand with other scientists" - I think that comes through in the statement of intent as does the research in the 10 Ways to Green IT.)

(Note from Marcela--isn't the audience supposed to be the CHI conference-goers? I don't think most of these people, especially students, would know about greenwashing, though don't think this web site would necessarily be the right place to explain it. I added Union of Concerned Scientists to the links to cover standing with other scientists)

• stand with other scientists;
• use research training to critically read the literature, research better solutions to interpret the science, to reject the propaganda and greenwash and to talk to people about what you find out;
• Be aware of HUGE MASS of greenwash and propaganda and vested interests and red herrings like Biodiesel