THE ACT’s first government-certified, carbon-neutral event, the “Out of the Ordinary” poetry conference, will be hosted by the University of Canberra.

The conference, which has secured carbon-neutral certification by Climate Active – the Australian government body tasked with certifying the climate sustainability of organisations, products and events – is providing vegetarian-only catering, recycling where possible, and offsetting all excess emissions.

Event organiser Dr Paul Magee, says there is no longer any excuse for public events to damage the environment we live in.

The conference is being held December 7-9, and features a series of public poetry readings in the University of Canberra’s iconic UFO courtyard, more than 50 pages on poetry and poetics, and a celebration at O’Malley’s Irish Pub in Civic of James Joyce’s “utterly strange” last book, “Finnegans Wake”.

“Creative artists and scholars can and should lead the community on these matters, showing how easy it is to reduce emissions, and offset any that cannot yet be reduced,” says Magee.

“This is the first carbon-neutral conference in Canberra, but I know it won’t be the last. The new normal is carbon-neutral.”