Our sustainability focus areas
While academic conferences can act as a vehicle to advance climate action, they also come at an environmental cost.
Recognising both the sustainability progress and sustainability challenges associated with international conferences, we have established a Living Lab for the Scenarios Forum 2025, using real-life scenarios as a test bed for cross-institutional research.
Read more about about our focus areas below.
Our organisational team and suppliers are also working together to share short blogs in the run up to the conference offering further insight into their focus areas. You can read these blogs on the Priestley Centre website.
Accessibility
As part of our Corporate Social Responsibility, we are working to ensure the Scenarios Forum 2025 is as accessible & and inclusive as far as reasonably practicable.
Take a look at our accessibility page to find out more.
Catering
Catering for the conference will be provided by the University of Leeds in-house catering service – Great Food at Leeds. For Great Food at Leeds the sustainability of its processes, produce and products is fundamental to its vision for the future.
The Scenarios Forum project will spotlight the extensive sustainability practices this service have already established, while also showcasing future concepts and practices. The Living Lab project will also grant access to crucial insights from industry leaders, colleagues, and delegates, helping us to achieve our sustainability ambitions.
Residences
Accommodation for the conference will be available at the University of Leeds residence Storm Jameson Court, which has been rated as four star campus accommodation by Visit England (2024).
The site was chosen to pilot the introduction of the hospitality sector’s Green Tourism accreditation scheme at the University in 2011, and subsequently achieved a Gold Award that year, with ten further University conference venues achieving the same level of award thereafter. Storm Jameson Court then went on to win a Green Tourism Goldstar Award for Best Campus Accommodation in 2014.
It has also been rated as Access Exceptional by the Visit England National Accessible Scheme, with 23 purpose-built accessible rooms, and an established ‘Access for All’ designed sensory garden with both large font and braille guides available on site at Reception. Site access details are available from AccessAble.
Take a look at our Accommodation and Hotels page to find out more.
Suppliers
We are working on a framework to help with supplier onboarding for this event for which we are liaising with our procurement team regarding purchasing frameworks that are already in place. We will also develop this framework throughout the conference and log any key decisions for reflection post conference & to act as a guide for future event delivery.
We will continue to make choices regarding the appointment of suppliers by considering the key priorities within the University Strategy.
Travel
The University of Leeds’ institutional Climate Plan sets out targets to maintain business travel and commuting emissions at 50% of their 2018/19 baseline level (20,090 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e)).
Business travel alone – such as travel to conferences, for research and on field trips – was responsible for 13,427 tonnes CO₂e in this baseline year.
It is important to practice what we preach and lead by example. The Scenarios Forum Living Lab provides a great opportunity for us to explore how we can encourage more sustainable business travel behaviours, as well as general travel within our wonderful city. You can find travel details on the University of Leeds website.
Sharing our learning
A key aim of this living lab is to share learning with across the University of Leeds and the wider higher education, conferencing and events sectors to advance sustainable conferencing practices beyond Scenarios Forum 2025.
We will be sharing learning from our journey to deliver the Scenarios Forum as sustainably as possible through blogs on the Priestley Centre website, social media posts on our Priestley Centre channels (LinkedIn and Bluesky), briefing, communities of practice, events and through our networks.
Legacy
This living lab project has legacy at its core and intends to make long terms changes to policy and practice for University of Leeds services engaged in delivering conferences and large-scale events.
We are also building collaborations between research and operational staff that will enable ongoing dialogue and activities to support the University’s climate and sustainability commitments.