Your guide to a sustainable OHBM experience: Brisbane edition!
Authors: OHBM Sustainability & Environmental Action SIG
June has arrived, and that means that another OHBM Annual Meeting is just around the corner! This year we have an absolutely beautiful location in sunny Brisbane, and if you want to keep the wellbeing of Queensland in mind while you’re visiting, you’ve come to the right place. This year’s conference likely involves a lot of air travel for many attendees, so it’s always important to keep in mind how your choices during your stay can limit further environmental impact. This year, the OHBM Sustainability & Environmental Action Special Interest Group (SEA-SIG) have done the research for you!
Luckily, Brisbane is ranked in the top 40 global sustainable cities, and is committed to providing environmentally friendly options for travellers. With all of this support from the city itself, it’s easy to make your OHBM experience a bit more mindful!
1. Traveling from the airport into the city
Brisbane has an extensive transit system, which makes it easy to get around, including connections between the airport and the main city centre.
The Airtrain is a transit option specifically linking Brisbane Airport with Brisbane City and other areas on the Gold Coast. This option is fast (only 20 minutes to the city), direct, and departs every 15 minutes during peak hours! If you’re staying near the conference centre, you’ll want to take the Airtrain to South Brisbane station. And the best part—OHBM has partnered with Airtrain to offer a 25% discount on return fares!
2. Hotels in Brisbane
There are a number of hotels in Brisbane that boast sustainable initiatives and policies, including one of the host hotels for the conference, Novotel Brisbane South Bank! In addition to being just a 220m walk from the conference centre, they have also eliminated all single-use plastics in the hotel and have a Sustainable Tourism Certification from Eco Tourism Australia.
Still need last minute accommodations and are not able to book Novotel? Google Travel can let you search for eco-certified hotels! Even if you are staying in a different hotel, there are some easy actions you can take to make your trip more environmentally friendly.
Use the “do not disturb” sign to indicate that you don’t need housekeeping to do laundry every day
Switch off all appliances when you are not using them
If possible, control the temperature in the room, only use fans or air conditioners when you are there, and turn them off when you leave
And as always—be conscious of your food waste while in your hotel!
3. Getting around Brisbane
Navigating the city
The official transit app from the Queensland Government is called MyTranslink app. This app can help you plan your trips and see the different transit routes. Brisbane is also totally covered by Google Maps for navigation, and open source map apps like Organic Maps also have detailed coverage for the city (and can be used offline).
Transit options
There are a number of options for getting around Brisbane while minimizing your carbon footprint! Public transport is a wonderful choice, but active travel choices like biking are a great alternative with the very comprehensive network of biking and walking paths throughout the city. There are also many protected bike lanes that are available downtown. Brisbane City Council has even put together a handy guide for riding in Brisbane with all the information you would ever want to know!
Paying for transit
Transit in Brisbane is very affordable and accessible for everyone. Each single journey costs only $0.50 AUD! Yes, that’s less than a dollar per trip, and this is the same price no matter how far you go, which zones you enter, how long the trip is, or what mode of transport you take (which could be the bus, train, tram, or even ferry)! Further, it is the same price for all methods of payment.
Brisbane has convenient ways to pay for transit: You can use a go card, which you can easily top up and tap on buses. Even more convenient is their direct contactless payment from your debit or credit card! You can also buy old school paper tickets from ticket offices and fare machines at stations, but we recommend opting for one of the other methods to save on paper.
Queensland Translink also has a very unique single group ticket option! While fares are the same per person for the group ticket, you can make it more efficient by covering everyone (up to 32 people!) with one single ticket. Consider taking advantage of this offering on a night out with the lab while in Brisbane!
4. Eating in Brisbane
Plant-based food options
Choosing plant-based food options is a very effective way to minimize your individual environmental impact. Thankfully, there are a number of restaurants with vegetarian or plant-based menus in and around the conference centre!
El Planta - a vegan Mexican restaurant that is also (mostly) gluten free! The menu rotates so the chefs can highlight different seasonal offerings. Only a 4 minute (260m) walk from the conference centre!
You Came Again (YCA) - a vegan tapas bar located a 15 minute walk or 5 minute bike ride away from the conference centre. Everything on the menu is also gluten free!
Vegan Restaurant West End - a name so simple, you know exactly what you’re getting! They offer vegan Asian cuisine and are located an 800m walk from the conference centre (or you can take a quick bus ride of 4 stops on the 199 bus)!
In addition to these dedicated plant-based restaurants, there are many other restaurants in the South Brisbane area that have vegan options!
Coffee & hydration
While in Australia, it would be remiss to not take part in their famous coffee culture! There is a very vibrant practice of reusable coffee cups to go along with the coffee scene. Bring your own reusable mug when you’re hitting up spots on your cafe crawl!
Similarly, bring your reusable water bottle with you to the conference and when you go out! Tap water in Brisbane is safe, and better for the environment than buying bottled water wherever you go (and free)!
5. Poster printing
For printing your poster, OHBM is recommending twolocations: Officeworks at Adelaide St. or Woolloongabba, or Snap Print Solutions on Albert St.
Some general tips to keep your posters as sustainable as possible:
Print on paper, rather than ‘fabric’: the ‘fabric’ used for posters is actually plastic, and cannot be recycled like a paper poster (although some ingenious presenters have ‘upcycled’ their polyester ‘fabric’ posters into bags and even clothing for a second life)
Ask your print facility if they use recycled paper—and if not, why not
Design your poster to avoid using large blocks of color, which will require significantly more ink. A white background is a better alternative to coloured backgrounds.
6. SEA-SIG meeting schedule
To find out more about ways in which human brain mappers can tackle the climate emergency:
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Join our educational course! 
‘Maximizing scientific efficiency through sustainability, reproducibility, and FAIRness’ (co-organized with the Open Science SIG ) Tuesday 24th June, 9:00–13:00 Location: P2 |
Come to our symposium! 
‘Silicon vs Carbon: Balancing scientific aspirations with environmental costs.’ Saturday 28th June, 13:00–14:00 Location: M3 |
Meet us at our poster booth! 
Come to meet the OHBM Sustainability & Environmental Action Special Interest Group at booth #28 in Exhibition Hall 1 Throughout meeting during exhibit hours |
Also, be sure to make it to the Awards Ceremony, where the OHBM Sustainability Award will be given!
7. Connect
We look forward to meeting you in Brisbane, or connecting with you online! If you’re interested in connecting, email us at ohbm.sea.sig@gmail.com, follow us on Bluesky @ohbmenvironment.bsky.social, and take a look at the SEA-SIG website for info on how you can get involved with our activities.
If you are unable to travel to this year’s annual meeting, or are opting to minimize your air travel, recorded sessions will join past years’ content (like this symposium talk from SEA-SIG) on the OHBM YouTube channel in the following months.