Staff are invited to participate in a project about business travel, an important element in our Strategic Plan – Sustainability.
The initiative is being run by postgraduate research student, Tyler Breeze working closely with Ian Williams, Professor of Applied Environmental Science in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences.
The background
Emissions from business travel form one of the largest components of our Scope 3 emissions. Staff and postgraduate research student business travel by air generates approximately 1.15 tonnes of CO2 emissions per full time employee per year, with the majority of this travel being for conferences. Travel for conferences has a significant impact on a global scale – travel to one large academic conference can rival the CO2 emissions emitted by an entire city over the course of a week. By reducing our business travel, we can make significant progress towards reducing our Scope 3 emissions.
How will the project work?
The project involves conducting focus groups to assess business travel habits/plans and related views. There will be 5 categories of focus groups targeting: Early Career Researchers (ECRs) and PhD students; L5-6 academic staff; L7 academic staff for each faculty and also technical, enterprise and professional services staff.
The approach uses a survey with standard questions that have been approved by the Sustainability Implementation Group (SIG) which will then be elaborated on in focus groups on Microsoft Teams to allow for open questions and staff commentary.
The focus group work will take place between 1-23 September and the meetings are expected to last between 1-1.5 hours. They will be recorded but these will be deleted once transcription is complete. All transcriptions will be anonymised. Dates and times for these focus groups will be provided once responses from staff have been received.
What will you do with the data?
The data collected from these focus groups will be used to help develop the University’s strategy for reducing business travel emissions. Therefore, participation from as many staff as possible is needed to ensure this strategy will be fair and ethical to all. By participating, you will be able to contribute towards this strategy which is likely to affect staff in the near future.
How can I get involved?
If you would like to participate in these focus groups, please email your staff level, faculty/department/directorate and availability for the period 01/09/22 – 23/09/22 to Tyler Breeze at [email protected].
Please also feel free to get in touch with Tyler if you have any questions about the project.
You can read more about Tyler Breeze and the business travel project in the September edition of Staff Matters.
