ISALXX Sustainability Policy

Waste reduction and recycling are the two major concerns of ISAL if we talk about a sustainable office life and a successful organization and course of all our ISAL symposia. Therefore, the 5 R’s refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and then recycle are our mission.

HOW THE INTERNATIONAL ISAL SYMPOSIA
IMPLEMENT THE 5 R’S INTO THEIR EVERYDAY BUSINESS LIFE

STEP ONE: Refuse
Refuse: It is the most effective way to minimize waste. When working with vendors, we refuse unnecessary product packaging and request reusable or returnable containers.

STEP TWO: Reduce
Wherever possible in our everyday office life and during the symposia we try to reduce the use of harmful, wasteful, and non-recyclable products. Reducing results in less waste materials ending up in landfills and lessens the associated negative environmental impacts.

For example, when printing a document in our everyday office life, we print double-sided to cut our waste output in half. Additionally, we reduce using single-use plastics, plastic packaging, organic waste, and Styrofoam cups.

STEP THREE: Reuse
Single-use plastics have created a „throw-away“ culture, which represents one of our biggest environmental problems in all our today’s societies. Replacing all of the single-use eating utensils, Styrofoam cups, water bottles, and paper plates with compostable or reusable alternatives is one of our major goals, even if it might not always be possible to reuse, but we are constantly working on implementing this step wherever possible.

STEP FOUR: Repurpose
For every item that cannot be refused, reduced, or reused, we try to repurpose or „upcycle“ it.
In the office, this includes using wasted printer paper for scrap paper, cardboard boxes for storing supplies, binder clips to hold power cords and chargers in place. And even items like coffee mugs, and tin cans can be upcycled for holding pens and pencils.
At each ISAL symposium we always ask the participants to leave their name badges so that they can be reused at the next symposium.

STEP FIVE: Recycle
Last but not least: Wherever possible we recycle, because recycling is the most environmentally friendly waste disposal method.

Finally, we want to encourage all ISAL participants to support us in our efforts to apply the above mentioned 5 R’s also during their stay at ISALXX, Munich, Germany, March 2027.

The Environment and the ISALXX team
thank you in advance
for your support!