Sustainability at IUMS 2024
IUMS 2024 and the Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs, also called the Global Goals) are 17 goals with 169 targets that all UN Member States have agreed to work toward achieving by 2030. They set out a plan for a world without poverty, hunger, and disease.
We at IUMS 2024 want to contribute to the achievement of these objectives in our value chain. We support and work toward the following SDGs:
Contributions you can make as an IUMS Congress Delegate:
As individuals and as a community, we can and should individually contribute to protecting the earth and its natural systems and resources and to sustaining the natural ecological balance of the ecosystem. Here is what we encourage you to do during IUMS 2024 in Florence, Italy:
- Use the mobile app and the virtual platform (instead of printing) to inquire about the program details.
- Use more sustainable ways of traveling to and around Florence, which is a very walkable city, with many public transportation options. If you are coming to the city from within Italy, we advise you to choose a train instead of a flight.
- Opt for reusable mugs and bottles. We will ensure enough water fountains around the venue, don´t forget your bottle!
- Reduce the waste you generate and separate disposal.
- Opt for a vegetarian option when available and possible.
Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
What we are doing in 2024:
- Plan the scientific program with breaks for mental and physical wellbeign
- Offer healthy food and drink options
- Encourage all participants to join the sunrise run or walk
- Provide family rooms, for parents with babies to attend the congress
Inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
What we are doing in 2024:
- Delegates are welcomed as participants, who contribute equally to the scientific educational content of the congress
- Adhere to inclusive Faculty with equal representation of all sexes, races, and different parts of the world
- Offer registration grants for participants from low & low-income countries
- Offer high-scored abstract registration grants for early-career researchers
- Encourage scientific engaged discussions throughout the congress, with participants asking questions, raising topics, and debating with the faculty
- Open session suggestions to the public
- Provide learning materials, such as access to all science for 3 months after the congress
- Have free open access to all abstracts presented at the congress, post-congress
- Anyone can submit an abstract on their research
Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
What we are doing in 2024:
- Sessions’ faculty will have a balanced gender representation
- Encourage acceptance of low & low-middle countries’ registration grants equally to all genders
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
What we are doing in 2024:
- Offer participants filtered water throughout the congress
- We work with our local catering partner to ensure the use of local and seasonal products, to reduce the transportation footprint of the congress
- Reduced cutlery use and Zero use of single-use plastic for meals
Reduce inequality within and among countries
What we are doing in 2024:
- Offer unrestricted registration grants to participants from low & low-middle income countries
- Ask participants from high-income countries to donate funds to sponsor participants from low & low-middle income countries
- Allow exchange of knowledge by visiting research institutions in the area of Florence and/or committee members’ institutions
Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable
What we are doing in 2024:
Firenze Fiera is strongly focused on sustainability and has developed special measures for this (Link). Moreover, it is the one and only fair complex in Italy that has a sustainability report (PDF).
- The entire program has been conceived so as to be enjoyed without any means of transportation. Enjoy the city center of Florence at walking distance!
- Florence has recently become known for its commitment to environmental sustainability. For the first time, Florence was listed in the prestigious world ranking of 88 leading cities acting against climate change, drawn up every year by the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project). Lonely Planet has included Florence in the ‘Best in Travel 2021’ ranking it in two categories: community and sustainability (the only Italian city with two awards). More info here
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
What we are doing in 2024:
We recognize the environmental impact that large-scale events like the IUMS Congress can have, so sustainable production and consumption are one of our top priorities in organizing the 2024 Congress. We are working with our suppliers to ensure maximum positive change.
- A mini-program will be printed instead of the full program, and the rest of the information will be shared digitally via the Congress App
- Limited printed promotional materials for IUMS in favor of digital alternatives. We are using local partners and less economically damaging product alternatives
- Encouraged all of our exhibitors to participate in this initiative by reducing single-use giveaways at their booths.
- Delegate badge collection and recycling at the end of the event
- Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns