Rethink Academic Conferences for Climate Justice: Sustainable Practices from the University of Kansas, USA
Attending academic conferences has long been considered a fundamental requirement for researchers, faculty members, and graduate students. These gatherings provide vital opportunities to present findings, exchange ideas, and build professional networks. However, the standard model of flying hundreds or thousands of scholars to a single location carries a significant environmental cost. Recent research from the University of Kansas, USA, challenges higher education institutions to evaluate the carbon footprint of these events through the lens of climate justice and adopt more sustainable practices.
Examine the Environmental Cost of Scholarly Travel
The traditional academic conference model normalizes extensive air travel. For decades, flying across the country or around the world to present a paper or sit on a panel has been viewed as a standard marker of professional productivity and academic prestige. This normalized behavior, however, contributes heavily to greenhouse gas emissions. Studies indicate that roughly one-third of the carbon emissions generated by higher education institutions can be traced back to academic air travel.
To quantify this impact, Joonmo Kang, an assistant professor of social welfare at the University of Kansas, led a study analyzing the travel emissions of a major scholarly gathering: the 2023 Society for Social Work and Research conference. Kang and his colleagues calculated the travel distances for 1,677 presenters—1,512 domestic and 165 international participants—by measuring the mileage from each presenter’s nearest airport to the conference site in Phoenix.
The findings were stark. Collectively, the presenters were estimated to have generated more than 1,383 metric tons of CO₂ through air travel alone, averaging about 0.82 metric tons per person. While this footprint is smaller than those associated with massive conferences in the hard sciences, the data provides a concrete baseline for understanding how deeply embedded carbon-intensive practices are within the academic ecosystem.
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Connect Air Travel to Global Climate Justice
Understanding the raw carbon data is only the first step. The critical contribution of the University of Kansas study lies in its application of a climate justice framework to academic conference travel. Climate justice examines how climate change impacts disproportionately affect vulnerable and marginalized populations—those who typically contribute the least to global emissions.
The research highlights a striking disparity: a single round-trip flight for a scholar based in the United States can equal or even exceed the entire annual carbon footprint of an individual living in the Global South. For researchers who specifically study social inequality, environmental hazards, and the disproportionate impacts of climate disasters on marginalized communities, this creates a profound ethical tension.
Kang noted a personal sense of hypocrisy in studying climate justice while simultaneously participating in the high-emission practice of flying to academic conferences. Higher education institutions frequently state commitments to fostering a more just and sustainable world. If universities are to authentically uphold these commitments, faculty and administrators must critically examine how their operational practices—including how they convene and share knowledge—contradict their stated institutional values. Addressing this disconnect requires moving beyond mere awareness and actively implementing sustainable practices.
Explore Alternative Models for Academic Conferences
The push for sustainable practices in higher education does not mean the end of academic gatherings. Rather, it requires a willingness to question established norms and experiment with alternative formats. The research published by Kang and his colleagues outlines several viable models that can significantly reduce the environmental impact of academic conferences while maintaining their core educational and networking functions.
Transition to Virtual and Hybrid Formats
The COVID-19 pandemic forced a rapid, widespread adoption of virtual conferences, proving that many essential functions of these events—paper presentations, panel discussions, and question-and-answer sessions—can be effectively facilitated in digital spaces. Beyond the obvious reduction in carbon emissions, virtual formats address long-standing equity concerns within academia.
Traveling to conferences requires significant funding, which is often inaccessible to graduate students, adjunct faculty, and scholars from underfunded institutions. Furthermore, virtual conferences eliminate barriers for caregivers, individuals with disabilities, and international scholars who face visa or financial constraints. While virtual formats come with challenges, such as screen fatigue and the loss of spontaneous hallway conversations, they represent a highly effective, low-carbon alternative.
Implement Regional Hub Models
For disciplines that place a high value on in-person interaction, the regional hub model offers a balanced compromise. In this framework, instead of everyone flying to a single national or international destination, participants gather in smaller, geographically distributed regional hubs. These local groups meet in person while connecting to the main conference and other hubs virtually.
This approach drastically cuts down on long-distance air travel while preserving the benefits of face-to-face networking and collaborative discussion within local academic communities. It allows scholars to engage with the broader national or international discourse without the associated carbon penalty of cross-country or intercontinental flights.
Optimize Conference Locations and Scheduling
Even when traditional in-person academic conferences persist, strategic planning can mitigate their environmental impact. The study points out that location selection plays a measurable role in overall emissions. Research demonstrates that choosing a centrally located city, such as Chicago, over a coastal destination can reduce air travel emissions by as much as 12% simply by shortening the average flight distance for domestic participants.
Additionally, some fields are adopting alternating schedules, holding in-person conferences every other year while utilizing virtual formats in the intervening years. This structural change immediately halves the travel-related carbon footprint associated with a given conference series over a multi-year period.
Explore our related articles for further reading on higher education sustainability.
Balance In-Person Networking with Sustainable Practices
While the data strongly supports reducing air travel, it is also important to acknowledge the unique value of in-person academic conferences. Human connection remains a vital component of scholarly work. Informal conversations, mentorship opportunities, and the serendipitous exchange of ideas that occur between sessions are difficult to replicate in a virtual environment.
Kang notes that his own perspective shifted during the course of the research. While he initially leaned toward advocating for entirely virtual conferences, he now recognizes the enduring importance of physical gatherings, particularly in an era increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence and remote work. The goal is not to completely eliminate in-person academic conferences, but to make them intentional, less frequent, and more accessible. By treating in-person conferences as special, high-impact events rather than routine obligations, academics can maintain the benefits of face-to-face interaction while dramatically lowering their collective carbon footprint.
Apply Climate Justice Principles to Higher Education Institutions
The findings from the University of Kansas, USA, serve as a microcosm of a much larger issue facing higher education globally. Academic institutions must move beyond treating sustainability as a peripheral issue relegated to campus facilities management, such as recycling programs or energy-efficient buildings. Climate justice must be integrated into the core operational and cultural practices of the university, including how research is disseminated.
Departments, professional organizations, and individual scholars can take actionable steps to align their behaviors with their values. This includes professional associations factoring carbon footprints into their site selection processes, tenure and promotion committees valuing virtual presentations equally to in-person ones, and grant-funding agencies allocating specific budgets for sustainable travel alternatives.
Rethinking academic conferences requires a cultural shift in how the academy defines scholarly rigor and professional success. By questioning normalized practices and adopting sustainable practices, higher education can reduce its environmental impact and model the climate justice principles it teaches.
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