Sustainable Conference
What are we trying to achieve and how?
The University of Leeds is using our hosting of the Scenarios Forum 2025 as a ‘Living Lab’ to trial and showcase methods for delivering a conference on our campus in the most sustainable manner possible.
A Living Lab is a collaborative approach to solving real-world sustainability challenges by integrating research and practice to test and implement solutions, using the University and our communities as a testbed. It emphasises hands-on learning, open sharing of insights, and the development of outcomes that can be scaled or adapted to benefit broader society.
For the Scenarios Forum 2025, we are bringing together operational and research staff and students to collaborate to develop plans that trial new ways of aligning key elements of conference delivery with the latest evidence on climate and sustainability. This isn’t about one-off measures for the Scenarios Forum 2025 but about building on our established practises and testing new practices that can be embedded in business as usual and sharing our learning across the University of Leeds and beyond.
As we explore options and learn more about the process of making this conference as sustainable as possible, we will update this page accordingly. Please refer back to this page for updates throughout.
How can you help with these ambitions as a participant?
As a Scenarios Forum attendee, you have expertise and practical experience that can support us in delivering the conference sustainably. You can help us to deliver on our ambitions by:
Taking a look at the delegate guidance – we will be providing information and signposting you to options to reduce the impact of your conference attendance.
Responding to our surveys before, during and after the conference – we need your feedback to understand what works and where we need to improve.
Being understanding – we won’t get everything right first time but we are genuinely trying to change our institutional practices and share our learning.
What are our key focus areas?
Below you can find information about our ambitions and plans with respect to key areas of work for this sustainable conference living lab.