05/06/2023 | Environmental sustainability in basic research - A perspective from HECAP+

On World Environment Day, 5th June 2023, a document produced by a grassroots initiative of scientists from the basic research disciplines of High Energy Physics, Cosmology, Astroparticle Physics, and Hadron and Nuclear Physics was released. The aim of this document is to reflect on the environmental impacts of these communities’ research and work practices, to highlight current efforts and best practices, and to make concrete recommendations for positive changes. Basic outcomes of this paper go beyond the field of the authors to all fields of research.

The document can be accessed at our website https://sustainable-hecap-plus.github.io/

A pdf version is here: https://sustainable-hecap-plus.github.io/Sustainability_in_HECAPplus.pdf 

The motivation of all this work is as stated in the first sentence of the abstract: “The climate crisis and the degradation of the world’s ecosystems require humanity to take immediate action.”

The focus for each section of the paper is and has always been on best practices, solutions, and improvements – ways that things can be done better instead of simply bemoaning in a doom and gloom way the inevitability of impending further climate chaos. 

Even reading just the Forewords, one will see that multiple leaders in our fields, representing a wide diversity of research disciplines, consider climate change a profound concern for not only physics research, but for humanity as a whole. They are eloquent in explaining the importance of considering GHG-emission factors in each step of our research lives.

We look forward to hearing about more initiatives along these lines, and implementation of some of the recommendations from any and all HECAP+ scientists.

And, we note here also that every single bit of this work was done remotely through Zoom and other tools, so that almost none of us have met in person ever.  Despite this a number of us have become well-connected, and even friends, through the process. We thus would like to say we are an example of how well collaboration can actually work remotely and with little environmental impact.

Thank you –  from HECAP+ and future generations –   in advance, for whatever part of  this document that you read, and act on.