Home » For Attendees » Sustainability

Sustainability

At CHI, we are committed to creating an event that is not only educational and informative, but also sustainable. We understand the importance of taking care of our planet and strive to minimize our environmental impact.

On this page, you will find information about the sustainability measures we have implemented for the conference, as well as tips for attendees on how to be sustainable during the event. We appreciate your support in helping us create a more sustainable CHI conference and encourage you to take an active role in reducing your own environmental impact.

SIGCHI Sustainability Committee

Did you know? Since April 2022 there is a SIGCHI Sustainability Committee. Their vision is to…

🌍 significantly reduce all environmental costs of the conferences that SIGCHI supports
🌍 promote sustainability at SIGCHI events by developing policies and guidelines
🌍 mitigate the local socio-ecological impacts of global HCI activities and propose offsetting measures
🌍 embed sustainability as a foundational value of HCI research, design, practice, and education
🌍 work on ethically sustainable research guidelines and sustainable HCI curricula

Planing your Trip Sustainably

Carbon Offset – Cool Effect

Just like last year, you will have the option to offset your carbon emission caused by attending and travelling to CHI

📉 During registration, there will be a checkbox to make a donation to Cool Effect
📉 The donation amount will be added to your total
📉 Cool Effects supports projects which prevents GHG from getting into the atmosphere
📉 Burning landfill methane and converting it to electricity, providing solar power to rural households, forest restoration and many more

Arriving by Train

The German event train ticket is available for the CHI23!

🚂 Eco-friendly travelling using 100% renewable energy
🚂 Includes City-Ticket: travel to and from the exhibition centre CO2 emission-free
🚂 Fixed prices from anywhere in Germany starting from 49,50€

Book now via https://chi2023.acm.org/for-attendees/travel-to-hamburg/
For attendees from outside Germany, please visit https://www.interrail.eu/en for sustainable travel by train.

Ecological Accommodation

Looking for a place to stay in Hamburg that is sustainable?

🏨 Raphael Hotel Wälderhaus – ecological & sustainable
🏨 Green Haven – vegan B&B
🏨 Scandic Hamburg Emporio – scandinavian flair
🏨 Park Hotel Hagenbeck – for animal lovers
🏨 Lindner Hotel Am Michel – certified green

During your Sustainable Stay

Sustainability Tips for Hamburg

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle ♻ Want to make your stay in Hamburg as sustainable as possible? We have some tips for you!

🌈 Too good to go: This app lets you save delicious food from being thrown away
🌈 ReCup: In many coffee shops and restaurants you can get your takeaway in a reusable ReCup
🌈 GreenKayak: Rent a kayak for free by collecting rubbish while paddling
🌈 Second hand shopping: Reduce waste and get some cool vintage clothes at Picknweight
🌈 StadtRad: Get around Hamburg without emissions by renting a bike

Local & Sustainable Restaurants

Fast food? No thanks! The CHI has extended lunch breaks, so you can explore local Restaurants. We have some sustainable suggestions:

🍽 In guter Gesellschaft – zero waste policy
🍽 Piccolo Paradiso – ecological wine restaurant
🍽 HACO – seasonal & regional with a Nordic flair
🍽 Klinker – nostalgic look, but fresh and sustainable food
🍽 Vincent Vegan – famous vegan burgers and more

Sustainable Shopping

Reduce waste and get some cool secondhand clothing

🛍 Pick N Weight: Vintage clothing, weight of clothing determines price
🛍 Humama: Second-hand treasures at many locations in Hamburg (Altona, Harburg, Winterhude, Schanze)
🛍 Second Schanze: Designer clothes in good condition as well as cheaper clothes

BYOB

Bring your own bottle!

🚰 The CHI Conference Center has water refill stations all throughout
🚰 So bring on of your own bottle and refill whenever you like
🚰 Let’s all reduce unnecessary plastic bottles together!

Reducing Waste – Goodies

♻️ Help us reduce waste by bringing your own lanyard. Don‘t worry, if you forget it, there are some at the reception.
♻️ Everything else, like informational material, is digital
♻️ To avoid waste, you can buy the goodies that you want to have

Getting Around Hamburg

🚋 Hamburg boasts an extensive public transport system for emission-free travel within the city
🚋 Tickets can be purchased via HVV app (https://apps.apple.com/de/app/hvv/id501995569 or https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.eos.uptrade.android.fahrinfo.hamburg&hl=en) online or directly here: https://www.hvv.de/en
🚋 Hamburg also provides City Bikes, which allows you to explore Hamburg on two wheels, but you need to sign up for the city’s public bike system. The first 30 minutes are free of charge and after that your trip will cost €0.08 per minute or €12 per day. Details can be found here: https://www.hamburg.com/getting-around/11874904/stadtrad/
🚋 E-Scooters by Voi, Tier and Lime can be found all over Hamburg.
🚋 Another option is MOIA, which offers sustainable local travel in comfortable small busses. Further information are available here: https://www.moia.io/en/cities
🚋 You can also use non-stationary car sharing providers like Share Now, Miles, and Sixt, which are parked all over the city. You need to sign up. Details can be found here: https://www.hamburg.com/getting-around/11874754/car-sharing/

Further general information can be found here:

https://chi2023.acm.org/for-attendees/travel-to-hamburg/#attendees_around
https://www.hamburg.com/getting-around/11874814/public-transport/

Sustainable Interactivities

Two interactivities have a special focus on sustainable topics:

📝 Exploring the impact of VR and embodiment on environmental literacy by Bordegoni et al.
📝 The authors have developed an educational Virtual Reality, allowing users to understand the issues related to the bee problem and empathize with bee colonies.
📝 Exploring Augmented Reality Waste Data Representations for Eco Feedback Assor et al.
📝 This demo shows how Augmented Reality can be used to visualize waste accumulation data in an engaging and visceral way.
📝 Visit them and other interactivities during the session on Monday 24.04 in the Exhibit Hall/Hall H

The Conference Center

Reducing Water Consumption

The CHI Conference Center has one of Europe’s largest herbaceous plant rooftop gardens!

🌻 It not only adds ecological value, but also retains rainwater to water the adjacent park and serves as a habitat mainly for insects 🐛
🌻 Eco-friendly cleaning agents to minimize pollution and reduction of water consumption is a top priority
🌻 The CHI Conference Center uses water-saving fixtures to reduce water flow rates and rinse volumes

Reducing Power (Electricity) Consumption

Light up – in an eco-friedly way!

💡 The state-of-the-art LED lighting and media technology used by the CHI Conference Center is extremely energy-efficient.
💡 100% eco-friendly energy generated from water or wind power since 2011

Reducing Energy (Heating) Consumption

Did you know you can recycle heat? The CHI Conference Center is doing just that!

♻ 99% of the energy we used for heating the buildings is recovered waste heat from the district heating network
♻ The exhibition halls are equipped with waste heat recovery systems to reduce thermal losses
♻ The cooling effect of the adjacent “Planten un Blomen” park is used to minimize the need for artificial night-time cooling during the summer months
♻ The heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems of all halls can be controlled individually to avoid wasting energy in unoccupied rooms.

Reducing Waste

Think outside the trash…Recycle!
In the CHI conference centre…

🗑 Wherever paper is required, recycled paper is used
🗑 There is no plastic cutlery or other plastic eating utensils
🗑 All waste produced is properly separated and disposed of
🗑 Paper, glass, and packaging waste is recycled

Catering

Enjoy delicious food sustainably!

🥕 Food at CHI will be regional, seasonal and organic and optimised for the number of participants
🥕 No artificial flavouring, or flavour enhancers
🥕 All suppliers must support animal welfare
🥕 Unnecessary transport and shipping is avoided, and all vehicles are 100% electric

Vegetarian Coffee Breaks

No more looking around for the vegetarian food option!

🥗 Just like last year, all morning and afternoon breaks will be 100% vegetarian
🥗 Only the Monday opening reception will have meat options