Meetings and Travel Emissions

In TOCILAM, nearly the entire meetings-and-travel footprint (2,148 kgCO2e out of 2,151 kgCO2e) derived from a single transatlantic flight by the principal investigator to present results at an international congress in the United States. Meetings and travel was the dominant emission module in both assessed trials, accounting for approximately 67–68% of total CO2e in each. In REMICRUSH, meetings-and-travel emissions were distributed across CRA travel for multiple monitoring visits to 15 participating sites covering initiations, monitorings, and closures. Expanding remote CRA monitoring or outsourcing site visits to local providers could substantially reduce travel emissions in multicentre trials. Virtual or hybrid conference participation is identified as the single most impactful lever for reducing the carbon footprint of small single-centre trials.