The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have created lasting effects on travel behaviours worldwide. Yet, we can all do more to reduce emissions by committing to practical decision-making when planning our travel. Recently, ANU Leadership endorsed an emissions reduction target to reduce travel-related emissions to 50 per cent based on our 2019 baseline by 2025 (excludes commuter travel).
ANU Below Zero spoke with Professor Sally Wheeler about her time as an ANU academic, decision maker and traveller. In all her roles at ANU, including Deputy Vice Chancellor of International and Corporate, she had many opportunities and expectations to travel for ANU business. Balancing the requirements of these roles with her desire to lower her carbon footprint, Sally made several practical choices that had better environmental outcomes and improved her quality of life, health and wellbeing.
Sally said that based on her experience as a frequent traveller who has been able to reduce her carbon footprint and see greater benefits generally, she believes that the travel target the ANU executive team endorsed is attainable. She emphasised that the goal of the reduction target is not to stop people from travelling but rather to reduce emissions by exposing the power of choice when we travel. Sally shared the lessons she's learned in finding a balance to empower others to find strategies that may work for them.
Virtual engagement
In a post-pandemic world, we've collectively upskilled our digital engagement capability and, as a result, expanded our reach. Sally attributes her use of technology as the most significant factor in reducing the number of trips she was required to take. There are major gains in efficiency for time and costs when attending meetings virtually. It also has the co-benefit of expanding her network, promoting a better work-life balance and increasing her capacity to engage. When considering all these factors, virtual engagement has the greatest positive impact overall.
"In some ways, although my world in terms of travelling has gotten smaller, in terms of the things I'm interested in and the people I'm operating with, it's actually gotten bigger. I'm spending less time travelling, so I have more options."
"In some ways, although my world in terms of travelling has gotten smaller, in terms of the things I'm interested in and the people I'm operating with, it's actually gotten bigger. I'm spending less time travelling, so I have more options."
Long-term planning and maximising itineraries
Another strategy significantly impacting total travel emissions and wellbeing is long-term travel planning of 6-12 months or more. Looking long-term at your priority activities and mapping the places and time needed to make those trips meaningful can have major benefits. The academic and professional calendars of events and activities like conferences, training or fieldwork are often planned many months, if not years, in advance.
It is not uncommon to have two long-haul trips at similar times of the year. In these cases, can you arrange your travel itinerary to leave one destination for the next instead of returning to Australia in between? This type of planning can reduce the carbon footprint of those two trips significantly.
For Sally, she realised that she had two necessary trips to Europe and the UK within a month of each other. She decided it would be more worthwhile to condense it to one trip but remain overseas for five weeks. Whilst this may not be feasible for everyone, this unconventional solution can save time, money, and emissions and improve wellbeing by reducing time spent in transit and maximising your time spent away.
Maximising your time away also means finding other opportunities to make the trip worthwhile. Sally and many of us can occasionally combine multiple meetings, seminars, and events and sometimes even include personal activities on their work trip. By creating more opportunities for ourselves while away, we ensure that our time, money and emissions spent on the trip are go farther.
Early career staff and students
Sally acknowledged that her position and situation differ greatly from others, for instance, early career staff who must travel overseas for meetings, conferences, or fieldwork to build and establish their networks.
"The same is true of our students. Many students choose to come to ANU because we have a wide range of workplace opportunities, internships, and global exchanges available. I would say, yeah, of course, you should go. This is not about stopping people from building their careers in the most efficient way possible. It's giving ourselves time to stop and think about whether we should do it."
But there are small changes everyone can make to reduce our emissions while travelling. For instance, if you travel overseas and need to transit between cities. Are there land-based forms of transportation that you can take safely and easily? Sally mentioned that she prefers travelling by bus to Sydney as it is less disjointed than flying and provides time for sleeping, relaxing or working. These minor adjustments can make a big difference in the trip's carbon footprint and have little effect on the overall time or cost of the trip. Find other tips in the Low-carbon travel guidelines on the ANU Sustainability website.
Like Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt, Sally committed to a personal travel pledge in her new role as Vice-Chancellor of Birkbeck, University of London.
"Next calendar year, I will commit to only doing two long-haul trips, compared to the six I took this year."
Can you think of a pledge for your year ahead that reduces your emissions from travel? Consider incorporating some strategies listed here, or are there other ones not included that work better for you?
ANU offers a travel management service to all ANU staff and students travelling for university business. Utilising this service has many additional benefits, including discounts for domestic and international airfares, accommodation, car hire, insurance coverage, the capture and reporting of GHGs and more. For more information, access the Travel Handbook here.