Staff and postgraduate research students are being encouraged to think about their business travel options in a renewed campaign to reduce emissions as part of our strategic plan for Sustainability.
The Sustainability Strategy consists of six goals which lay out an ambitious vision for a more sustainable University and what we need to achieve to get there.
In 2018-19 emissions from business travel accounted for over 7 kT CO2e (6%) of the University’s total Scope 3 emissions. Goal 3 is about how we reduce those emissions and become a sector leader on more sustainable approaches to business travel.
Analysis of travel system data provided by Clarity (our travel management partner) shows that while business travel emissions fell to near zero in 2020-21 they are starting to rebound as research, fieldwork, business and especially conference trips ‘recover’ (see Figure below and click to enlarge).
What drives business travel emissions?
Pre-COVID over 97% of our business travel emissions were due to business flights. Staff and postgraduate research students were generating approximately 1.15 tonnes of CO2e/FTE per year. The majority of this travel was for conferences.
“We’re not saying don’t fly at all, but think whether there is an alternative option first”
Professor Jane Falkingham, Interim Vice-President International and Sustainability Champion for Goal 3, says:
“We are starting to re-engage with the world after two years of pandemic, both for our research but also in terms of professional services who are just starting to travel again for student recruitment.
“Over the last two years we dramatically reduced our travel and our carbon footprint making good use of video conferencing to take the place of face-to-face meetings in other parts of the world. This is the time to ask what learning can we take from the last two years when we have all so effectively found an alternative to business travel?
“We’re not saying don’t fly at all, because in some situations it will be important to make that journey. What we are saying is please think hard about your options. We now have good technology in place to have meetings without the need for travel and the pandemic proved that we could do that.“
Reducing our business travel emissions
We can all reduce our business travel emissions by making sure we ask ourselves to:
- Avoid – Do you really need to travel? Can you achieve the aim without travel?
- Reduce – Do you need to go as often/far/can you combine trips?
- Take low emissions options – If travel is unavoidable; can you take options which minimise emissions?
In general, the biggest savings are made by not flying as this infographic produced by the SIG clearly shows. (Click on the images to enlarge).
The graphic compares different ways of ‘attending’ a UK-based meeting and an international conference. The relative scale of emissions from flights compared to videoconferencing is stark. As a result, the Sustainability Implementation Group’s (SIG) 2021 report on low emissions business travel options concluded:
“The carbon cost of the internet appears negligible compared to nearly all non-local business travel. There is therefore a strong argument for ‘virtual’ participation by default, especially for destinations outside Europe where air travel is largely the only practical solution.”
You can find other examples of low emissions options in Section 6 of the SIG’s 2022 business travel emissions trends report.
For further information
- 2022 SIG report on business travel emissions trends from 2017 to present using Clarity data.
- 2021 SIG report highlighting lower emissions options for a range of travel scenarios.
