Low-Carbon Research

A research network working across four continents has to account for its own carbon. These are the measures built into how the partnership runs.

What we do

• Fly-less events. Members in the Quebec–Ontario corridor gather by rail and road. Given how much of the network sits in that corridor, this is the single largest reduction available to us.
• Hybrid by default. Symposia, Research Cluster gatherings, Summer Institutes, speaker series and fieldwork preparation all run hybrid. Remote participation is a first-class option, not an accommodation.
• Staggered field intensives. The six OAiS Labs are spread across seven years so that a given researcher travels to a distant site rarely, and so that a single trip serves preparation, fieldwork and mobilisation at once.
• Rotating hosts. Symposia move between Concordia, Brock, York, McMaster, Trent and ASU, distributing travel burden rather than concentrating it on one location year after year.
• Asynchronous collaboration. Cluster work happens in writing and in recorded sessions across the network's time zones, which serves both carbon reduction and the accessibility commitments in our equity plan.