[Qgis-psc] Environmental policy

[Nyall Dawson]

On Thu, 16 Jan 2020 at 21:20, Paolo Cavallini <cavallini at faunalia.it> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
> following the interesting proposal by Andreas, I'm here starting a
> discussion about QGIS.ORG environmental policy:

Upfront: Thank you Andreas and Paolo for kick-starting this
discussion. From the viewpoint of a resident of one of the countries
currently most affected by climate change, yet with one of the most
backward, short-sighted governments imaginable -- it's clearly NOT
going to be our governing bodies which will lead the war on climate
change. In my view it IS the responsibility of smaller groups like
QGIS to do whatever we possibly can to mitigate the change.

> * do we need an explicit environmental policy?

Why not? We do have some power here, in that we provide a desirable,
mature, well respected product. The QGIS project adopting an explicit
environmental policy (in whatever form that takes) does give a good
message to other projects and even to our users that this is a serious
issue.

> * probably our greatest impact is travel for Developers Meetings
>   * do we need in person general meetings, or we can promote more
> extensive and structured use of remote connections?

Here's a point I'm stuck on. I strongly believe that these in-person
meetings are crucial for QGIS, and have gone a long way to promote the
growth, friendliness, and welcoming nature of the community. Removing
them **would** harm the QGIS project. It's been a number of years now
since I've been able to attend one in person, and I'm feeling the
disconnect from the community as a result.

I REALLY want to attend the Nodebo meetup/conference later this year,
but at the same time I'm consciously aware of how bad the impact of
the flight from Australia to Europe is (and there's zero alternative
options available for this). I'm honestly not sure what the right
choice for me to do is here...

Nyall





>   * if we need it, do we need two meetings per year?
>   * do we want to plan our meetings in an optimal location, to minimize
> total travel?
>   * do we want a combination between the two: smaller local meetings
> that reduce travel, coordinated across the globe?
>   * do we want to suggest|gently push|require participants to use low
> impact transportation?
>   * do we want a cap on cost and time difference between transportation
> method? e.g. train is to be used when cost or duration are no more than
> x times flight cost or duration
> * do we want to engage in proactive environmental actions? e.g. donating
> to the environmental agencies|NGOs|etc. specific tools to evaluate and
> reduce impact? e.g. a QGIS ad hoc grant with a specific budget for it
> * do we want additional actions? e.g. low impact (vegan) diet on Dev
> Meetings?
>
> I tried to collect options and ideas, please do not take these as my
> personal preferences.
> Given the wide interest and impact of this theme, I encourage an open
> and friendly discussion involving also non PSC members. Please be gentle.
> Following this I'll call for a vote on specific items.
> Cheers.
> --
> Paolo Cavallini - www.faunalia.eu
> QGIS.ORG Chair:
> http://planet.qgis.org/planet/user/28/tag/qgis%20board/
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