Table 1 Aggregated interview results on the status quo of flight reduction at higher education institutes covering different fields of activity and the respective concluded findings.
From: An evidence-based approach to accelerate flight reduction in academia
Fields of activity | Aggregated status quo results from the interviews | Concluded findings |
|---|---|---|
Implementation of the topic of flight reduction | Flight reduction as… - …part of a sustainability strategy - …part of the focus field of mobility within the climate action concept - …topic of discussion in the sustainability group (not formally embedded) - …a university-wide project located at management level and the sustainability unit, independently of a conceptual framework | ➔ The intensity of implementation of the topic of flight reduction at academic institutions ranges from soft informal to structural involvement at management level |
Involvement of different institution members | Flight reduction is driven by… - …sustainability officer - …a scientist’s initiative - …the cooperation with administration/travel department - … legitimacy through management level - …discussions in a working/sustainability group (for mobility) consisting of different institutional members - …incentives by the international office - …involvement of student initiatives | ➔ The types of involvement on the issue of flight reduction are different at each institution and, above all, vary in intensity |
Monitoring + Reporting | - No standardised collection of business trip data - Travel reason is collected by a free text entry (hard to analyse/quantify) - Manual transfer of travel data to calculate emissions - Tool to measure flight emissions from business trips: atmosfair - No collection of data from student air travel - Aim to use new tool that facilitates monitoring of business trips/emissions | ➔ The lack of digitisation and standardised collection and storage of flight data challenges the process of continuous monitoring |
Flight reduction measures | - No implementation of any flight reduction measures - Implemented air travel policy including next steps on developing measures for flight reduction - Reduction targets for flight emissions - Carbon offset payment for flight emissions to the federal state - Voluntary carbon offset payment to an internal climate action fund - Continuing expansion of virtual infrastructure | ➔ No mandatory flight reduction measures are implemented yet by any of the institutions studied |
Communication | - Reporting of flight reduction data within the framework of the sustainability report - No information about the methodological approach of calculating the emissions - Free available paper (incl. number of flight emissions and methodology) - Different formats for information and awareness making events on the topic of flight reduction - Discussions on the topic of flight reduction in regular meetings | ➔ Education and communication on the topic of flight reduction with all member groups of the institution promote the transformation process in various ways |
Challenges | - Fostering scientific success/career/quality and simultaneously reduce flight emissions - Very small but globally connected research community - Fieldwork at remote places - Costs for flights vs. train - Long travel times are not family-friendly - Scientific communities’ culture of presence - Possibility of networking or informal exchange is missing in virtual formats | ➔ Individual challenges at each institution need to be faced |
