Sustainable travel

Meetings and travel are an integral part of the work done at the university and are necessary for co-operation and collaboration, but the way we meet will be decided with consideration to the economic, social, and ecological consequences of travel. The university’s meeting and travel policy states that ‘meetings and business trips must be planned and executed so that travel is sustainable and takes into consideration costs, time, environmental impact, and the traveller’s safety’. One should always contemplate whether a trip could be replaced by a digital meeting. By signing onto the Climate Framework for Institutions of Higher Learning, the university has also committed to reducing its environmental footprint from business trips in accordance with the Paris Agreement and Sweden’s Climate Framework, which involves a gradual reduction in the impact that our travel has according to the university’s fixed-term climate objectives, with climate-neutral business trips as a final goal by 2045 (see Cross-sectional areas: climate adaptation).

In recent years, the university’s CO2 footprint from business trips has increased per employee, which has been due to our investment in internationalisation. If the university is going to live up to its environmental commitments, we need to develop forms of sustainable internationalisation.

Objectives

• CO2 emissions from business trips (air, bus, car, train travel) is reduced by at least 15 per cent  per annual work unit (AWU) between 2018 and 2023. 
• Choosing a digital meeting format is easy and enjoys high status.
• It is easy for employees, students, and collaborating partners to travel to and from the university in the most environmentally friendly manner possible.

Strategies

• Making it clear in communication with the organisation what the demands for sustainability in meeting and travel policy are, and creating motivation for employees to choose sustainable meeting and travel alternatives.
• Making demands of sustainability on contracts with travel agency services (for example, international train travel, CO2  data for travel, CO2 statistics according to reporting requirements) and introducing internal carbon emission trading for business trips.
• Making the most of our experiences from the Covid-19 pandemic to develop a strong digital meeting culture in which we choose travel-free meetings when this is possible and offer digital participation in our own meetings and conferences.
• Developing our efforts in the direction of sustainable internationalisation within the framework of the university’s internationalisation project, with special focus on climate impact from long-haul flights.
• Collaboration on activities and sustainable communication as well as parking solutions for travel to and from the campus.

Responsibility

• The University Director is responsible for heading up our efforts to develop routines and follow-up systems.
• Management personnel at all levels are responsible for leading by example and for seeing to it that meeting and travel policies are respected and that our climate objectives are achieved.
• Employees at all levels are responsible for travelling as sustainably as possible as well as for contributing to a reduction in the university’s impact on the climate.