Wednesday, 10 December 2025
For the third consecutive year, the CIJ Awards partnered with CarbonTool to measure and communicate the environmental impact of our event. What began as a simple calculation effort in 2023 has evolved into a defining part of our sustainability journey, one that helps us track our progress and understand our influence.
This year, CarbonTool once again introduced a live carbon footprint dashboard, allowing guests to follow the event’s environmental impact as the evening unfolded. Attendees were able to contribute their commuting method, directly shaping the final results and making the assessment more accurate and more reflective of real mobility choices.
The total carbon footprint of the CIJ Awards 2025 amounted to 6,602 kgCO₂e, covering all major activity categories assessed for the event. The distribution across key categories is as follows:
When viewed per attendee, the footprint translates to 30.63 kgCO₂e, offering a clear and comparable indicator of the event’s environmental performance. These results provide a solid baseline for guiding future improvements and ensuring we continue moving in the right direction.
To make the overall impact more intuitive, CarbonTool translated the event’s total footprint into a set of accessible, real-world equivalences. These visual comparisons helped attendees better understand the scale of emissions at a glance, turning technical data into something tangible, relatable, and easier to communicate. This approach continues to encourage meaningful conversations about sustainability among participants, partners, and the broader community.
Mobility plays a central role in any event’s environmental impact, and this year’s data offered several encouraging insights. Commuting contributions from attendees highlighted car travel, walking, and rail-based public transport as the top three modes. This mix reflects a balance between convenience and lower-impact choices: while many relied on cars, a notable share of guests chose to walk or use urban rail systems, an optimistic sign of increasing accessibility and environmental awareness.
These patterns not only enrich our understanding of how participants travel but also point to clear opportunities for future editions to further promote low-carbon commuting options and strengthen our overall impact reduction efforts.
The findings from this year’s assessment reinforce a hopeful message: change is possible, and it’s measurable. Each year, the CIJ Awards becomes more sustainable. Not through dramatic shifts, but through consistent, cumulative improvements supported by data, transparency, and collaboration.
With CarbonTool’s support and the engagement of our community, we remain committed to setting a positive example for responsible, sustainability-focused event management.
