Building a Sustainable Future: DrupalCon Europe’s Green Journey for 2025

As we step into a new year, many of us set goals for the future. At DrupalCon Europe, we’ve made a meaningful resolution for 2025: to create a greener and more sustainable event. Sustainability has always been a top priority for Kuoni Tumlare, the event organizers, who dedicate significant effort to integrating eco-friendly practices into every aspect of event planning. They remain committed to making impactful strides each year to reduce our environmental footprint. Here’s a look back at our achievements in 2024 and our aspirations for the year ahead.

Our Sustainability Journey So Far
In 2023, at DrupalCon Lille, we took the first step on this journey with the guidance of Terra Verde Sustainability. This partnership provided an invaluable framework, including expertise and carbon measurement tools to guide our efforts. Continuing this collaboration through 2024, DrupalCon Barcelona introduced several initiatives to lower its carbon footprint and raise awareness about sustainability.

Reflections on DrupalCon Barcelona 2024
The carbon footprint of DrupalCon Barcelona 2024 increased by 43% compared to 2023. This rise was primarily driven by attendee air travel, which accounted for 95.9% of the total event emissions. The increase reflects a combination of factors, including Barcelona’s location compared to Lille and improvements in data collection accuracy.

Per Attendee Carbon Footprint: The average attendee footprint rose to 1,448 kgCO2e from 850 kgCO2e in 2023.

Non-Transport Emissions: Excluding transport, emissions showed a 24.3% reduction from 75.95 tCO2e in 2023. This was largely thanks to CCIB’s sustainable operations, including significant reductions in energy use, production materials, catering, and waste.

Key Achievements:

Energy Efficiency: The CCIB venue’s use of renewable energy significantly reduced emissions from electricity and gas.
Catering Improvements: Vegetarian catering options played a vital role in cutting emissions.
Waste Management: Collaboration with CCIB ensured nearly zero waste went to landfills.
Community Engagement: We partnered with Trinijove to collect electronic devices, hosted a train travel contest, and organized a mascot auction to support selected charities.
Education & Wellbeing: Attendees enjoyed massages, wellbeing workshops, and sustainability-focused social media content. We also introduced a sponsor sustainability contest.

For more details on these initiatives, visit: DrupalCon Barcelona 2024 Sustainability Page.

Looking Ahead to 2025
As we prepare for DrupalCon Vienna 2025, our commitment to sustainability is stronger than ever. Here’s what lies ahead:

Suppliers & Venue Selection: Sustainability is at the forefront of our planning, from choosing a venue with green certification to collaborating with eco-conscious suppliers. The Austria Center Vienna, known for its strong sustainability credentials, will host DrupalCon Europe 2025, perfectly aligning with our environmental goals.
Improved Data Collection: We aim to gather more detailed and accurate data to enhance future carbon measurements.
Engagement & Education: We’re committed to encouraging attendees, partners, suppliers, and sponsors to adopt sustainable practices and providing them with the support they need to succeed.

Join Us on This Mission
Are you passionate about sustainability? Have ideas to share or want to contribute to our efforts? Let’s work together to make DrupalCon Europe a benchmark for sustainable practices.