How to promote reduction of carbon footprint for conference participation?

Personal, disputable view follows.

Even if you avoid a conference, you save only a few kilograms of carbon. There's millions of other fliers that don't care about it and are travelling at the same time.

The best way to protect the environment is through technological advances: planes that work with eco-friendly fuel, are faster or more effective, better virtual reality technology that allows one to avoid travels, maybe even quantum teleportation and all that kind of stuff.

How do we advance technology? Through scientific research. How do we get it earlier? By advancing scientific knowledge as fast as we can, in the most efficient way. So go to that conference, don't worry about that minor O(1) saving, and do your part to obtain the O(n) or O(n^2) one later on in the history of humanity. Maybe that theorem in homological algebra that you are presenting today is going to be instrumental to quantum teleportation in 100 years.

What about decentralized conferences?

People could meet at two, three or more smaller conference centers instead of meeting at one large conference center (Europe, US, ...). Each researcher would have to travel less. Live streaming of the sessions and discussions would allow a broad participation.

There would be a loss in networking but not completely. Organizing such events might be more difficult but I would give it a try.

Environmental sustainability institute propose several strategies for lowering carbon footprint. It can be applied generally in any occasion. See http://cotap.org/reduce-carbon-footprint/

Selected quotes from that page:

1. Reduce Your Carbon Footprint From Driving some conferences organise excursions for participants and planar speakers, chooice wisely most appropriate transport, and Get a hitch-mounted cargo rack, Tire inflation and other tuning. Properly inflated tires improve your gas mileage by up to 3%. It also helps to use the correct grade of motor oil, and to keep your engine tuned, because some maintenance fixes, like fixing faulty oxygen sensors, can increase fuel efficiency by up to 40%. Avoid traffic. Being stuck in traffic wastes gas and unneccessarily creates CO2. Use traffic websites and apps and go a different way or wait. Misc. Combine errands to make fewer trips. Remove excess weight from your car. Use cruise control.
2. Reduce Your Carbon Footprint From Air Travel Work Air Travel. Increase your use of video-conferencing tools like Skype and Facetime. What class? Economy class is best, for the same reasons as carpooling and public transportation. Each flyer’s share of a flight’s carbon emissions is relatively less because it’s spread out over more people.
3. Reduce accommodation and conference place Energy Carbon Footprint Make energy efficiency a primary consideration when choosing a place where conference will be held. Products bearing the ENERGY STAR label are recognised for having superior efficiency. There are many accommodations that claim they are green, eco friendly, self sustainable.
4. Reduce Your Carbon Footprint From Food Eat locally-produced and organic food. It has been estimated that 13% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions result from the production and transport of food. Transporting food requires petroleum-based fuels, and many fertilizers are also fossil fuel-based. Cut the beef and dairy. It takes a lot of resources to raise cows, and it’s especially bad if you buy beef from somewhere like Brazil, where it was grazed on land that used to be tropical forest but was cleared for agricultural use. Deforestation is a top contributor to carbon emissions and thus climate change. Go vegan for brunches
5. Water usage ower the amount of energy used to pump, treat, and heat water by washing your car less often, using climate-appropriate plants in your garden, installing drip irrigation so that plants receive only what they need, and making water-efficient choices when purchasing shower heads, faucet heads, toilets, dishwashers and washing machines. Reuse and recycle. It has been estimated that 29% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions result from the “provision of goods,” which means the extraction of resources, manufacturing, transport, and final disposal of “goods” which include consumer products and packaging, building components, and passenger vehicles, but excluding food. By buying used products and reselling or recyling items you no longer use, you dramatically reduce your carbon footprint from the “provision of goods.”
6. Carbon offsetting should not be done in place of taking steps to reduce one’s carbon footprint. Carbon offsetting and carbon footprint reduction should be done in tandem. Measuring your carbon footprint not only reveals where you’re currently at, but also helps to identify areas for improvement and track your progress. Offsetting the amount which you are not able to avoid empowers you to take full responsibility for your carbon pollution, which is your contribution to climate change. In this context, COTAP offers a unique and meaningful solution in that we focus on certified forestry projects in least-developed regions that create life-changing income for the world’s poorest people.