AWE Takes Environmental Leadership Role, All Shows Are Now 100% Carbon Neutral

XR Community Unites Around $100K Environmental Prize for a Sustainable Future With 150 Worldwide Teams Using XR Technology to Combat Global Warming; Growing Coalition of Eco-Friendly Companies, Including IEEE and NVIDIA, Contribute Additional Prizes 

NEW YORK, April 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- AWE, the world's first and largest community of AR and VR professionals as well as the world's largest XR-specific trade show with 300+ exhibitors showcasing the full breadth of the XR ecosystem, today announced that all future worldwide shows (including the upcoming AWE USA event at the end of May) will be carbon-neutral. 

The event's entire carbon footprint, including more than 5 million miles of attendee air-travel, will be offset through verified carbon reduction projects from corporate sustainability leader Terrapass. To learn more, visit https://awexr.com/sustainability 

Terrapass has helped more than 1,000+ businesses, institutions, and hundreds of thousands of individuals, take responsibility for their impact on the climate. This has resulted in projects that have reduced greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere equivalent to billions of tons of carbon dioxide.

"Terrapass has confirmed that AWE has neutralized the estimated carbon emissions from the AWE USA 2023 event by funding 1,238 mT of carbon offsets from verified carbon reduction projects. Estimated carbon emissions are based on operational data provided to Terrapass by AWE for venue, shipping, air travel, car travel, ground transportation, hotels, paper, water bottles, meals, and waste." - Terrapass.

AWE has followed the Terrapass model to 'calculate, reduce, and offset' the event's worldwide carbon footprint - both at the events and in its business operations. AWE USA is now COMPLETELY Carbon-neutral. By offsetting the event's entire carbon footprint AWE's carbon impact is the equivalent to planting 20,470 trees or removing emissions from 300 cars for a full year. Through the Terrapass partnership, once event attendees complete registration, they are encouraged to offset their own carbon footprint, extending the impact and making the event carbon negative. 

"Since our inception, it has been AWE's mission to further human progress through technology and harness the power of XR to fight the greatest challenges facing humanity," said Ori Inbar, co-founder of AWE. "No one can argue the horrific effects carbon dioxide waste has inflicted on our planet's ecosystem - we firmly believe there is no greater challenge today, and as such we have committed to do all that we can to leverage our platform and community in service of fighting climate change."

Tech Leaders Join $100k Commitment to Climate Action:

The $100,000 XR Prize Challenge: Fight Climate Change is a global competition organized by AWE co-founder Ori Inbar as the means towards harnessing the worldwide XR community to develop solutions to help fight climate change. 

Leading technology companies and professional organizations including NVIDIA and IEEE have joined the call to action, contributing cash prizes and hardware incentives to the prize pool. 

"NVIDIA's support for AWE's XR Prize Challenge demonstrates our commitment to driving innovation and using technology to tackle some of the world's most pressing issues," said Greg Jones, Director of Product and Business Development for XR at NVIDIA. "NVIDIA RTX A6000 graphics cards will provide the necessary computing power for contest winners to continue their work on groundbreaking XR solutions that can help address the effects of climate change."

"IEEE and AWE share a mission to inspire the global community and advance technology to better serve all of humanity. Addressing the impact of climate change is one of humanity's most urgent issues and we are proud to partner with AWE and support the XR Prize Challenge: Fight Climate Change. By contributing $10,000 as a cash award to best-in-category solutions, we celebrate the great work of all the XR Prize teams and encourage further XR innovation in this necessary fight," said Yu Yuan, President, IEEE Standards Association.

AWE has submissions from dozens of worldwide corporate teams as well as educational institutions and individuals. All are competing for the $100,000 cash prize awarded to the best submission demonstrating a creative, functional, and impactful XR-based solution to help humanity in our fight against climate change. 

About AWE:

AWE USA 2023 takes place May 31 - June 2, 2023 in Santa Clara, CA. Early Bird Tickets are available through Tuesday April 18th—save $400 with Early Bird Prices at https://www.awexr.com/usa-2023/

AWE (Augmented World Expo) is the world's leading AR+VR conference and expo with events in the USA, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. AWE events consistently bring together a mix of CEOs, CTOs, designers, developers, creative agencies, futurists, analysts, investors and top press in a unique opportunity to learn, inspire, partner and experience firsthand one of the most exciting industries of our times.

AWE offers an endless stream of online webinars and local meetups in 30+ cities around the world at https://www.awe.live/, as well as:

• High-quality educational workshops with the best instructors from the XR community - for the XR community
• Free access to the largest collection of free videos of talks and webinars in AR & VR
• The XR industry's most prestigious and long-standing awards competition - The Auggie Awards

All trademarks and registered trademarks previously cited are hereby recognized and acknowledged. For more information, please contact AWE PR Counsel Jonathan Hirshon at [email protected]

SOURCE AWE