Environmental sustainability in basic research: a perspective from HECAP+

arXiv:2306.02837 · physics.soc-ph, astro-ph.CO, gr-qc, hep-ph, nucl-ex · Submitted 2023-06-05 · Read on arXiv

physics.soc-ph, astro-ph.CO, gr-qc, hep-ph, nucl-ex

Submitted: 2023-06-05

Updated: 2026-09-21

Comments: 180 pages, 22 figures. Version 3.0 is an author-prepared post-print of JINST 20 (2025) P03012. Revisions included in this version are detailed on page 4 of the pdf. If you would like to endorse this document please visit: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1293733/

Journal ref: JINST 20 (2025) P03012

DOI: 10.1088/1748-0221/20/03/P03012

Project page: https://sustainable-hecap-plus.github.io

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The gist: The climate crisis and the degradation of the world's ecosystems require humanity to take immediate action.

Terminology

Energy Efficiency — 26× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
Data Centre — 25× in this paper
United Nations — 15× in this paper
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — 8× in this paper
Core — 6× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
Large Hadron Collider — 5× in this paper
Cooperation — 4× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
Accuracy — 3× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
Benchmark — 3× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
Adam — 2× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
International Conference for High Energy Physics — 2× in this paper
Monte Carlo — 2× in this paper
Paul Scherrer Institut — 2× in this paper
Power Usage Effectiveness — 2× in this paper
Prevessin Computing Centre — 2× in this paper
Aggregation — 1× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
American Geophysical Union — 1× in this paper
Benchmarking — 1× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
Brominated Flame Retardants — 1× in this paper
European Southern Observatory — 1× in this paper
Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection — 1× in this paper
High-Voltage Direct Current — 1× in this paper
International Committee for Future Accelerators — 1× in this paper
Legacy Survey of Space and Time — 1× in this paper
Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility — 1× in this paper
Redundancy — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
Science and Technology Facilities Council — 1× in this paper
Steering — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
United Nations Development Programme — 1× in this paper
Young Researchers Integrability School and Workshop — 1× in this paper

Abstract

The climate crisis and the degradation of the world's ecosystems require humanity to take immediate action. The international scientific community has a responsibility to limit the negative environmental impacts of basic research. The HECAP+ communities (High Energy Physics, Cosmology, Astroparticle Physics, and Hadron and Nuclear Physics) make use of common and similar experimental infrastructure, such as accelerators and observatories, and rely similarly on the processing of big data. Our communities therefore face similar challenges to improving the sustainability of our research. This document aims to reflect on the environmental impacts of our work practices and research infrastructure, to highlight best practice, to make recommendations for positive changes, and to identify the opportunities and challenges that such changes present for wider aspects of social responsibility.

Environmental sustainability in basic research: a perspective from HECAP+

Terminology

Abstract

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