Going Green

Big conferences are generally known to leave a big carbon footprint. EERA and the Local Organisers of ECER therefore aim to lower the environmental impact of the annual conferences by looking at all aspects of the conference organisation, such as registration, communication, travel, catering, waste disposal etc and finding the most sustainable solution.

Below you will find an overview of what you can do, and what we do.

Concerning your CO² footprint, how you get to the event matters the most. For those travelling by aircraft or car, we recommend you compensate your CO² footprint. EERA cooperates with “myclimate”, a Swiss non-profit organisation engaged internationally in climate education and awareness to support climate protection projects.

Learn more about myclimate and how to compensate your CO² emissions.

German participants, or those who live close to the border, can make use of the DB Event Ticket, see more info on the right. For our guests from Austria and Switzerland, the nightjet is a nice alternative to a short distance flight and will get you straight into the center of Hamburg.

• The public transport in Hamburg has a tight net of train and bus lines which connect mostly every 10 minutes. We really encourage you to use it, it’s nearly always the fastest way to get around. Public transportation information can be found at the Hamburg public transport website: https://www.hvv.de/en
• Free HVV Tickets for all ECER Participants! Good news: Your ECER 2019 conference badge (which you will receive at check-in) will also serve as a pre-paid ticket for the HVV, the Hamburg public transport, valid from 2 - 6 September 2019. This is a 24 hour ticket for the entire Hamburg public transport system (trains, buses and ferries).
  Our warmest thanks to our generous Going Green partner, the Otto Group, for making this happen!
• For airport transfer, the new ride-sharing service MOIA might be just the right thing for you! https://www.moia.io/en
• If you would like to see more of Hamburg, get around without delays and without stress, renting a city bike is the best option! Just register via the homepage or the app and you are good to go. The first 30 minutes of each trip are even free of charge. (https://stadtrad.hamburg.de/en/register)

• Please support us in making this event as eco-friendly as possible by bringing your own refillable water bottle and using the “ECER 2019 conference coffee mug” you will receive with your conference bag for the coffee you get in the breaks.
• Tap water is potable in Hamburg. Bring your own reusable water bottle and you will have a healthy, cheap and eco-friendly drink with you at all times.
• If you are out and about in Hamburg  and would like to refill your water bottle, these two things will make your life easier: bring-your-own-bottle and fill it at one of Hamburg's drinking water columns.
• For lunch, instead of getting something to take away which produces packaging waste, go to the cafeteria on campus (Studierendenwerk), it offers a wonderful salad bar and several warm dishes (vegetarian & vegan options as well).
• Bring your own cup: If you want to explore the coffee shops on campus but still want to keep it sustainable, simply ask your barista to fill the coffee straight into your own reusable coffee mug (some of the coffee shops give even a little discount for this).
• And in case you have forgotten your mug: Recup is a new recycling system for coffee mugs. You basically rent a reusable cup in exchange for a deposit (1€), which you can then return to every participating partner shop. Just look out for the RECUP stickers that partners put on their entry door or visit their official website .

• On site, as well as all around Hamburg, a recycling and composting system is in place. Please make sure to use the appropriate bins.
• The German deposit system: In Germany, most empty glass and plastic bottles, as well as aluminium cans, are not trash - they are basically money.
  If you find the symbols on the right on your bottle, you pay a deposit (“Pfand”) when buying it, which you will get back when returning the empty bottle at a shop.
• “Pfand gehört daneben” (Bottles belong next to (not in) trash containers): Since many people throw away their empty bottles instead of returning them to a shop, a campaign was initiated to encourage people to leave their bottles next to trash cans.
  This is not only more sustainable (the bottles can then be recycled more easily) but it can also be seen as an act of solidarity, since people who need the deposit money to master everyday life can pick up the bottles without having to search the trash cans. So always remember: bottles do not belong in trash cans!
• To support the “Pfand gehört daneben” (bottles belong next to (not in) trash conatiners) initiative, students of the University of Hamburg launched a project to collect empty bottles: They put up old old beer crates next to trash containers on campus for people to easily discard and pick up used bottles. There are already ten of these collecting points installed. Look out for these points on campus and leave your „Pfand“ bottles there.