It is estimated that in 2020 alone, 786 million metric tons of CO2 were saved from entering the atmosphere thanks to the shift to virtual events. This figure is equivalent to taking over 170 million passenger vehicles off of the road for 1 year.
A single day event in the U.S. with 1000 participants emits an estimated 805 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, the same amount produce by burning over 850,000 pounds of coal.
Air travel alone can account for up to 99% of an in person event’s emissions, especially if there are international flights involved.
We’re on a mission to set a new standard in how events should be run by making our virtual events climate positive and helping others do the same.
We developed a powerful calculator in collaboration with carbon offsetting experts to quantify the impact our events have on the environment. And, aside from using our calculator for internal operations, we wanted to make our calculator useful for everyone as a first step to understanding and addressing the emissions from all events, not just the ones hosted with us.
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Once the calculations are complete, we work with our provider to certify the results and fund the offsetting of these emissions (and then some). These funds are dispersed across a portfolio of projects that are third-party verified to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Download Offset Project Portfolio PDF ↓All offset projects are validated and monitored by an accredited third party.
Disclosing your carbon emissions and offsets is at the cornerstone of any ESG strategy. That’s why every event on Touchcast receives its own greenhouse gas emissions report that shows the breakdown of our platform emissions for your event with us, the verification of offset purchase, and the projects our funds helped support.
We worked with Kepler Cheuvreux to quantify the difference in environmental impact between their 2019 Autumn Conference, held in person in Paris, France, and their 2021 Autumn Conference, held in the Touchcast Metaverse. By using real event statistics from both conferences, we found that Kepler Cheuvreux experienced an estimated 98.1% reduction in CO2 emissions from their 2019 to their 2021 Autumn Conference prior to offsetting.
When we refer to a tonne of CO2, we are referencing a unit of measurement for a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide, and more). GHG emissions are important to mitigate because they increase the levels of harmful gases that linger in the atmosphere - the main driver behind our current climate crisis. GHG emissions have many sources, but, for events, travel, catering, and facility heating/electricity use are typically the main sources,
A carbon offset is a greenhouse gas reduction that is used to counterbalance, or offset, a greenhouse gas emission. When we invest in carbon offsetting, we invest in high-quality projects which remove the equivalent of our emissions from the atmosphere, or prevent them from happening all together.
By investing to become carbon neutral, you fund projects that offset the exact amount of carbon you emitted into the environment. When investing to become climate positive, you go one step further and fund projects that offset more carbon than you emitted into the environment (specifically, at least 10% more), leaving a positive impact on the planet.
All of our offset projects are third-party validated and verified to be additional, real, and permanent under the Verified Carbon Standard or BC GGECR. Additionally, our offsetting provider, Offsetters, ensures that the projects they provide are of the highest quality.
Trees are great for the planet, but they grow slowly. It could take one tree up to 40 years to capture 1 tonne of CO2. On average, human activity is estimated to put out as much as 40 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. That means we would have to plant 40 billion trees now, and wait at least 40 years to offset the emissions we put out today, and so on…
We want to urge companies to reduce their events' environmental impact as much as possible, and the best and most eco-friendly way to do that is to host a virtual event. So, in an effort to push for the highest reduction in event emissions, we will not be making our hybrid events climate positive. If you need to bring people in person, consider reimagining the format of the event - spend less time with everyone watching 8-hour presentations and opt for flying fewer people over.
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