Sustainability
Actions we're taking to reduce the environmental impact of our flagship event: the EHA Congress.
EHA is committed to:
- Reducing the environmental footprint of the Annual Congress
- Encouraging all Congress participants to recycle, reduce waste, and use sustainable modes of transportation
On this page, we provide an overview of the actions EHA took to make the EHA2024 Congress, which was held in Madrid, as sustainable as possible.
As EHA2025 approaches, we'll also add updates to this page about the environmental actions we're taking for EHA2025 in Milan.
EHA2024 Congress actions
Downloadable participation certificates
By making the certificate of participation available to download on the Congress platform, we reduced the use of both paper and printer ink.
Transportation
Flight
To mitigate the emissions from flights to and from Madrid, we purchased 1,000kg of Sustainable Aviation Fuel from Lufthansa's Compensaid initiative. This resulted in an emission mitigation of at least 2,989kg of 'CO₂e.' You can read the full details in our Compensaid Emission Mitigation Certificate.
In addition, we offset 1,247kg of CO₂ emissions from EHA employees' flights — also through the purchase of Sustainable Aviation Fuel. Our carbon compensation is recorded in this Lufthansa Climate Supporter document.
This was the second time we offset our employees' flight emissions in this way, as we purchased 934kg through the same scheme in 2023.
Public transport tickets
To reduce CO₂ emissions linked to journeys to and from the event, we partnered with Madrid City Council to offer free public transport tickets. These were available to all registered participants.
Catering
All participants could assemble their own lunch, which helped to reduce the amount of food and paper waste.
In addition, the Congress caterer, VilaPlana, used:
- Sustainable and local products
- Reusable tableware that complied with the EU's ban on single-use plastic tableware
Lanyards
Our EHA2024 lanyards were made of polyester fiber from recycled PET bottles. This fabric:
- Efficiently conserves natural resources
- Reduces the burden on the natural environment
Eighty percent of the power used to produce the lanyards came from European solar panels.
Venue
EHA selected IFEMA MADRID as the venue for EHA2024. IFEMA has:
- An electricity supply that's certified as 100% renewable energy
- Bins that encourage waste separation and recycling
Carpet
The carpet, provided by the official supplier EA Exhibition, used during EHA2024 is the only one in the world to have received a Silver certification from Cradle to Cradle.
Audio-visual power
On behalf of EHA, and to offset carbon emissions from the event, ACS, official audio-visual support for EHA2024, allocated 25,000m2 of degraded land in Kenya for 'regreening.' This was in addition to the 25,000m2 it allocated in 2023.
You can find out more about what this allocation involves in ACS's poster about regreening support.
Event shirt donation
After the event, we donated 200 EHA2024 polo shirts to Stichting Babylon, which is part of the Babylon Foundation. Since 2019, this foundation has been committed to helping underprivileged children, families, and young people in the Netherlands and Iraq.
You can read the official response to our donation in Stichting Babylon's confirmation letter.
EHA2025 Congress actions
Our next Congress, which is expected to be our biggest yet, will be held in Milan, Italy, from June 12–15, 2025.
We'll post updates on this page about the steps we're taking to make it as sustainable as possible.
Back