Over the past 3 years, Autodesk has made a serious effort to do business more sustainably. Two important objectives were to measure carbon footprint consistently and to become a more carbon-efficient company by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per revenue dollar.
A major contributor to Autodesk's carbon footprint is major conferences. Autodesk has just released the greenhouse gas (GHG) and other environmental impacts of Autodesk University (AU) 2010.
In-person attendance at AU Las Vegas was up 11 percent over 2009, but the per-attendee carbon footprint was reduced by 4 percent over 2009. The reduced carbon footprint was achieved through a reduction in materials use, fewer plastic water bottles saving 3.3 tons of plastic, and using mobile device-based application instead of printed programs and handouts for AU classes, saving 314 trees. For AU2010, more than 92 percent of all solid waste generated by the event was diverted from landfill for recycling.
Attendee travel continues to be the primary contributor to carbon impacts. But these emission numbers remained flat because a lot of people attended AU virtually. In 2010, AU brought together 30,000 attendees for live conferences through AU Virtual. Online participation was up 18 percent over 2009.
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