Environmental impact and measures for greener mobility
Table of contents
Commutes of university employees to their place of work and study
Every day, a large proportion of the nearly 40,000 university members commute between home and their place of work or study. The associated emissions represent a significant environmental impact of the TU Dresden. Therefore, it is important to take measures to make these trips as environmentally friendly as possible. This includes, for example, improving the conditions of the job ticket for employees, maintaining the semester ticket for students, improvements for cyclists, or supporting commuter carpools.
The modal split, i.e. which mode of transport is chosen for the journey to the place of work or study, has been determined in several surveys in recent years, most recently by the Mobility Survey 2022.
The image shows the CO2 equivalent emissions for students and employees.
The Co2 emissions produced during commutes to TUD were analyzed in 2017 as part of the HochN project. The evaluations showed that the university’s 35,000 students produced fewer greenhouse gases on their commute than its 8,200 employees.
Specific CO2 equivalent emissions for students and employees on the way to and from uni in 2017 (yearly emissions per person)
If we calculate the specific CO2-equivalent emissions per person from these figures, we find that employees cause five times the per capita emissions of students due to their more frequent use of cars. At 412 kg per year, employees release about half of the long-term CO2 target value of one ton of CO2 per person and year just during their commutes to work.
A mobility plan is currently being prepared for TU Dresden’s main campus. It will investigate topics such as mobility management, parking space management and street space design. TU Dresden's mobility vision is to create a highly accessible, lively, sustainable and innovative campus with an exceptionally welcoming atmosphere. Its particular focus lies on the following areas of activity:
- Increasing interest in active mobility in general (walking and cycling)
- Improving conditions for cyclists (parking facilities, infrastructure on the main campus, rental systems, service)
- Improving the conditions of and information on the Jobticket
- Managing parking
- Creating innovative mobility solutions (e.g. Jobrad, company bikes, shared mobility, new concepts of micromobility, digital mobility)
Business trips of university employees
Business trips are responsible for greenhouse gas emissions of universities as well. Which measures can contribute to a reduction of these emissions?
In 2017, Travel Expense Accounting’s electronic data was utilized for the evaluation of TU Dresden business trips as part of the HochN project. An analysis of the approx. 19,000 invoiced business trips that took place at TU Dresden in 2016 showed that TUD employees traveled around 27.6 million kilometers for work and emitted around 4,700 tons of CO2.
Number of business trips, distances traveled in km and CO2 emissions (evaluation of business travel data from 2016)
Of the business trips, 44% were made by car, 28% by train, 23% by plane, 3% by public transportation, 2% by long-distance bus and 0.3% by bicycle. It is striking that air travel, which accounted for 23% of business travel, equated to 71% of kilometers traveled and was responsible for 84% of the CO2 equivalent emissions.
Percentage distribution of CO2-equivalent emissions caused by mobility at TU Dresden (as of 2017)
Overall, business travel is responsible for 44% of the CO2-equivalent emissions caused by mobility at TU Dresden, with air travel alone responsible for 37%.
Modern communication technologies for web conferences or virtual meetings have often been suggested as an alternative to business travel. However, statistical data showed that despite the increasing number of virtual meetings, the number of business trips also rose sharply. It has even been suggested that it is precisely these communication technologies that are driving the globalization of science and education, thus contributing to increased travel in the long term. Virtual meetings make project collaboration between geographically distant universities and other partners possible, yet completing whole projects without any face-to-face meetings is rather uncommon. However, a single flight to the USA can exceed the climate impact of multiple journeys to destinations within Germany many times over.
The Covid pandemic in 2020 changed the situation. As business travel became limited or impossible, the majority of domestic and international communication took place via web conferencing. Many researchers who were forced to make use of web conferencing noticed that, while these are no real replacement for face-to-face meetings, they do offer some considerable advantages. Moreover, intense usage of these systems on a global scale led to their technical improvement in a short period of time. It remains to be seen what will happen after the pandemic. Will postponed business trips be made up for in a business trip boom – or will some business trips be replaced permanently by web conferences?
Currently, there are several ideas under consideration for how to reduce emissions from business travel:
- Measures for raising awareness among those requesting and approving business trips
- Drawing attention to the environmental impact of various modes of transportation
- A pledge to refrain from short-haul flights
- Development of guidelines for environmentally friendly business travel
- Shifting to more environmentally friendly modes of transportation
There are also discussions about using disputed carbon offsetting for air travel.
It is essential to define specific reduction targets (consumption + emissions/employees) and absolute reduction targets (consumption / total emissions) if we want to achieve actual reductions (travel/total emissions). Regular reporting and accounting of CO2 emissions generated by business trips is essential for monitoring progress. Therefore, the CAMPER MOVE project is aiming to establish an annual assessment of the modes of transportation used, distances traveled and the CO2 emissions from business travel in a monitoring system. Based on this information, decisions can then be made annually on whether targets have been achieved or whether further action is required.