Credit: The Forktree Project

More than 1,105 trees were donated to the Forktree Project by delegates at the 55^th RANZCO Congress in Adelaide as part of the college’s sustainability drive.

A local charity, the Forktree Project has a goal to return a degraded 133-acre pastoral property in South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula to its natural state by re-establishing native trees and shrubs, bringing back local wildlife and sequestering tens of thousands of tonnes of carbon.

RANZCO is committed to sustainability in ophthalmology and the congress is an opportune time to show this, said new RANZCO president Professor Peter McCluskey. “We aim to walk the talk by taking steps to reduce our environmental impact at congress and to use the event as a forum to discuss the ways ophthalmologists can reduce their surgical waste, implement environmentally friendly changes to their practice and to ensure patients can access safe and effective treatment.”

Attendees could purchase trees, “for less than the cost of a cup of coffee”, when they registered or during the congress at its ‘Sustainability Station’ in the exhibition hall, said organisers. Other congress sustainability initiatives included: carbon offsetting with exercise bikes; sustainable catering; washing stations for reusable coffee cups; making the event plastic-free by promoting reusable materials and sustainable alternatives where possible and all signage either electronic or made from recycled ecoboard; while all leftover lanyards and name badges were sent to Terracycle for recycling.