Sustainability

As a conference, we are not climate neutral. However, we lower our impact on the environment as much as possible, Inspired by the 8 R’s: Recycle - Refuse - Reduce - Reuse - Repair - Regift - Recover - Rethink. We welcome feedback on how to improve. Here are our current initiatives:

Venue

• We favour venues that are easily reachable by public transport.
• Read about our venue's efforts towards Sustainability.
• The Speakers' Hotel, the West Cord Fashion, focuses on sustainability. Read about their efforts.

Catering

• The buffet is 100% vegetarian. Vegan options are also standard available.
• The caterer works with local & seasonal produce where possible.
• The caterer has a no-food-to-waste charter. They fully use their ingredients, as not to leave any waste. As organisers, we closely estimate our food amount through a careful headcount to minimise waste. We create awareness with our attendees to not throw away food.
• Drinks are offered in porcelain and glassware. Food is served in reusable plates and cutlery.

Waste & Recycling

• We try to avoid waste. We measure the waste we produce, so we can improve this yearly.
• During the conference we optimize waste processing and recycling. We provide separate paper bins.
• We reuse leftover swag as marketing materials.
• We donate leftover paper and banners to companies who repurpose them.
• We ask our sponsors to bring recyclable and eco-friendly materials for their booths.

Logistics

• As a speaker gift, we invest in trees for a agroforestry project and build further on our growing DDD Europe-forest year by year.
• Our T-shirts are 100% bio cotton. They are produced by StanleyStella. Fashion is one of the least sustainable industries worldwide, but StanleyStella is commited to sustainability and transparency, working towards reduced carbon footprint. More info here
• We don't provide goodiebags and we avoid flyers.
• We work with suppliers that print without chemical ink.
• We wash and reuse materials such as staff shirts, lanyards, ...
• We order recycled paper: sticky notes, program booklets, ...
• We avoid yearly new banners. When we order new banners, we make sure they are reusable and made from recycled materials.

Travel

• We're a remote-first company, and use public transport where possible.
• We book travel for our speakers so we can offer more sustainable alternatives (such as trains) instead of flights. For Antwerp 2025, thanks to the effort of our speakers and staff, 50% is coming in by flight (because of the long distance or intercontinental travel, in the past 75% of our speakers travelled by plane). 35% comes by train (compared to 25% last year) and 15% by local transport or car.
• We encourage our participants to come by train if possible. Amsterdam has good train connections to Brussels, London, Paris,... We promote this actively on our website and in our communication.
• We provide free bikes from the speaker's hotel to the venue.
• We inform our participants about carpool-options by offereing a slack-channel to find ride-shares.
• We carbon offset the flights we book yearly. Below you can find here the Certificate for Offsetting a previous edition's travel, by which we supported efficient cookstoves in Ghana to avoid deforestation.

We know that these are only small steps. We try to be more aware and adapt where we can. If you have any tips for us, please get in touch!

2025

2024

2023