700 Section - The Invisible Cost of CAPM&R: Estimating the Carbon Footprint of Travel to Our Annual Canadian Physiatry Conference

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

6:00 PM - 7:30 PM PT

Presenting Author/Autor expositor(s)

RB

Rylie Bonkowski, MD

Resident Physician
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation - Western University
London, Ontario, Canada

Co-Author/Coautor(s)

E. Ali Bateman, MSc, MD, FRCPC (she/her/hers)

Physiatrist & Assistant Professor
St Joseph's Health Care London & Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University
London, Ontario, Canada

Objectives :
Physiatrists provide expert care for persons with disabilities, who are disproportionately affected by climate change. Healthcare and travel are both major contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Canada. The Canadian Association of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (CAPM&R) holds its scientific meeting in a Canadian city annually. Physiatrists, residents, medical students, and exhibitors from across Canada and internationally travel to attend this conference. Our study aimed to estimate the carbon emissions attributable to travel to the in-person CAPM&R conferences for 2023, 2024, and 2025, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Montebello, Quebec, and Calgary, Alberta, respectively.

Design:
Number of conference attendees was obtained from CAPM&R organizers. To estimate the carbon footprint per attendee, carbon footprint data, measured as tonnes of emitted carbon equivalents (tCO2), was extrapolated from two similarly sized Canadian medical conferences and validated using Canadian and UK carbon footprint data (carbonzero.ca, carbonfootprint.com). Canadian conferences were selected to arrive at a conservative estimate, as studies looking at international conferences estimated carbon emissions ranging from 0.54 – 3.0 tCO2/attendee. The carbon footprints in tCO2 were averaged to estimate the travel carbon footprint per attendee.

Results:
The estimated average travel carbon footprint was 0.7 tCO2/attendee, equivalent to 298L of gasoline. CAPM&R conference attendance was 225 in 2023, 215 in 2024, and 301 in 2025. The estimated travel carbon footprint for CAPM&R attendees was 157.5 tCO2 in 2023, 150.5 tCO2 in 2024, and 210.7 tCO2 in 2025.

Conclusion:
This is the first study to look at the carbon footprint of CAPM&R. Conference attendees and organizers ought to incorporate environmental considerations into conference planning, since climate change poses a substantial public health threat. Strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of CAPM&R conferences moving forward would be to offer a hybrid of in-person and virtual conference components and encouraging train or automobile travel wherever possible.