There’s something about bringing together over 3,000 Drupal Community members that creates an energy that just can’t be replicated. But all that goodness comes at a price for the environment. This year, we’ve taken some direct steps to help reduce our impact on the environment by reducing or offsetting our energy use from fossil fuels (avoiding greenhouse gases and pollution), and limiting our use of non-renewable or scarce resources.

Here are just a few of the ways the staff and our community are reducing the environmental footprint of DrupalCon Portland:

• Reduced fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions with carbon offset programs for attendee travel and sponsor booths
• We’re encouraging use of public transportation by providing free TriMet passes to attendees
• We sourced many our conference materials locally, reducing transportation miles. This includes your conference meals, signage, program guide, and even the beer served at the conference!
• The program guide is printed on 100% recycled stock and conference signage contains recycled content as well, reducing our use of virgin resources.
• We’re reducing landfill waste by serving lunches in compostable packaging, donating leftover food, and not using plastic water bottles or styrofoam products.
• The hotels in our block all have linen re-use programs, reducing the amount of cleaning agents in waste streams.

Want to do even more?

You can still buy a carbon offset for your travel. And visit the DrupalCon Bookstore in Room C120 to purchase your own Drupal KeepCup. Over a year, use of a KeepCup reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 92% compared to disposable cups.