Sustainability

We have a responsibility to current and future generations to conserve resources and improve quality of life.  As a leading association in the field of Neurology we always aim to be pioneers in reinventing new approaches on how to meet and exchange scientific knowledge. Environmental Changes make it necessary to reduce our carbon footprint as good as possible.We believe in reducing, reusing and recycling resources is the best way to challenge ourselves to work for a better tomorrow.

Congress Materials

Following you can read some of the steps EAN takes, to create more climate friendly meetings:

Produce:

• Care is taken to ensure that the congress items are produced sustainably and that they are made of sustainable materials.

•  Congress Material like Giveaways, Congress Bags, Badges, etc. are no longer produced in excess, but the participants are asked about their demand (our Congress Bag producer is Wörkerei, an employment project of Caritas Wien, which supports people in their progressive entry into working life)

• Green print - The print materials of this congress have been printed on paper that is PEFC approved. PEFC is an organisation that certifies paper manufacturers who keep to sustainable forest management criteria.

Reuse:

• We would like to reuse as many fabrics and carpets as possible. Attention: as long as it makes sense - you always have to question if storage and logistics (i.e. transports) to other countries are really more sustainable than maybe recycling it differently!
• For our booths we use reusable materials like cardboard our partner Papplab is local and innovative

Reduce:

• We reduce the use of plastic or material in general, therefore we ask the participants to bring their own water bottles that can be refilled at our installed drinking fountains or dispense on printed material.

• Reducing print - The printed programme has been replaced with the Pocket Programme available for all onsite congress participants.

Only a short overview of the actions EAN does, was given in the lines above. If you are  interested to know more about sustainability actions of EAN click here or read our Sustainability Report.

We are doing our best and there is still much to learn. We are  happy to hear your ideas; please do not hesitate to write to us at sustainability(at)ean.org.

To reduce unnecessary waste, EAN asks Individual Congress participants and Registration Group Leaders if they want to receive the congress bag(s). If you order a congress bag during the registration process, please collect it from the congress bag pick-up point in the entrance hall. This year's congress bags are produced in Vienna by Wörkerei, reusing textiles from our last congress.