Turku University of Applied Sciences developed a carbon footprint calculator for events

The CarbonWise project developed a Carbon Smart Event Guide and a carbon footprint calculator to guide the organisation of climate-friendly events.

Text: by Siiri Welling

It is possible to calculate the carbon footprint of events at Turku University of Applied Sciences. The CarbonWise project has created a dedicated Excel-based spreadsheet to calculate the carbon footprint of events such as research days in higher education and vocational education and training.

“With CarbonWise, we wanted to reduce the carbon footprint at regional level. To achieve this, we produced a guide to carbon-wise events (in Finnish), a tool for planning different types of events on campus. In addition to this, we also created a concrete calculator to calculate the carbon footprint of an event within certain limits,” says Maarit Jaakola, a specialist at Turku University of Applied Sciences.

The calculation took into account the travel and accommodation of the invited guests, the vegan catering, the physical materials used in the organization and the waste management of the building. Other participants could also use a separate calculator to calculate their own carbon footprint from accommodation and travel.

“The importance of events lies in the fact that you meet other people physically. This allows for much more networking, discussion and brainstorming than, say, a simple webinar. It is important to be aware of the carbon footprint of events,” says Jaakola.

The calculator can be used for all events organized by the University of Applied Sciences, but it is also freely available for events organized by other organizations. It is based on the UAS’ own carbon footprint calculator.

Download the calculator (In Finnish).
Get to know the Rectors’ Conference of Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences Arene’s carbon footprint calculator (In Finnish).

The article was published on 14.2.2022 on the previous turkuamk.fi website.

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