Travel can positively impact our careers and help us reach ANU strategic goals. But every flight we take and every trip we make increases our carbon footprint. In fact, in 2023, University travel (excluding commuter travel) was our largest source of carbon emissions within the scope of ANU climate goals.
Last year, the University set a goal to reduce emissions from travel by half compared to our 2019 baseline by 2025. A recent travel survey showed more than three-quarters of ANU staff support this emissions reduction goal, but there are valid concerns about what it means in practice.1 Travel will continue to be essential to our work. Reducing emissions does not mean a blanket ban on travel. Instead, we need sensible and equitable action at every level – institutionally, collectively and individually, to reach our mutual goals.
The fundamental question for ANU is how best to support our staff to be successful with a lower carbon footprint? Since 2021, ANU Below Zero has been working with the ANU community to understand the role travel plays in their career and what is necessary to lessen the environmental impact.
A common request from staff and decision-makers has been for better data on travel emissions. Understanding travel profiles across the University is essential for making impactful changes. Having this data available to all staff can help unify efforts across campus and increase accountability measures.
Developing the Tracker
ANU Below Zero approached the ANU Software Innovation Institute (SII) in the School of Computing to help design a solution. SII creates, applies and teaches innovative data science and software engineering techniques, providing students with integrated learning opportunities by addressing some of today's complex challenges. Over 2023, SII worked with ANU Below Zero with input from the Business Intelligence and Analytics teams at Planning and Service Performance (PSP) and the ANU Travel Lab. The result is the Travel Emissions Tracker.
Dr Jess Moore, Honorary Senior Fellow, who led the development of the Tracker, said that creating the product was “only possible thanks to generous input from ANU professional and academic staff, as well as the expertise of our student software engineers who built the tracker while juggling their studies.”
The Travel Emissions Tracker is an online app that reveals University travel profiles using travel approval data and calculates emissions using international standard methodology. Everyone in the ANU community can access the Tracker to see emissions for the whole of ANU as well as at the College and School levels. This app aims to support strategies for individual and collective climate action programs across the campus.
[An important tool] to the University's efforts to understand and shape its travel profile, given the big role that travel plays in its overall carbon footprint.
The Director of the ANU School of Computing, Professor Antony Hosking highlighted “the importance of this tool to the University's efforts to understand and shape its travel profile, given the big role that travel plays in its overall carbon footprint. Giving individuals [the ability] to profile themselves is key to having personal agency in addressing this challenge”.
We’re two thirds of the way to achieving our goal
In 2023, travel emissions were 33 per cent less than they were in 2019 – a positive step towards our goal of 50 per cent reduction in travel emissions. However, if we look at the preceding years when COVID-19 affected our ability to travel, we are on an upward trajectory. Now is the time to consider ways our future travel plans could be organised to reduce emissions.
ANU Below Zero and the Travel Lab are working with Schools on understanding nuances that need to be considered in enabling staff to continue to be successful with a lower carbon footprint, and where possible, sharing the learnings with other areas of the University so success can grow. Staff from ANU Below Zero and the Travel Lab have met with multiple Schools in the past months to talk to staff about the goal and their emissions profile and initiate an action research program to identify specific discipline and area requirements and co-design measures that work for them.
Supporting our staff in making informed decisions is paramount to the success of this program and limiting our contribution to climate change. We are updating our low carbon travel guidelines and producing tailored content that speaks directly to staff needs. Watch for those support materials and others launching in the coming months.
Access the Travel Emissions Tracker here
ANU is working to reduce our environmental impact across all our emissions sources including energy, travel, waste and more. Looking for other ways to help support this mission, join the One Small Step app. An app developed to speak directly to the ANU community with easy and fun ways to act more sustainably.
1A recent survey was shared across ANU that sought to understand our community’s travel practices and support regarding travel targets and measures to reduce our carbon footprint. Responses were received from across all Colleges and nearly all professional Portfolios, with 77 per cent of respondents saying they support a goal to reduce travel emissions. The full report on the survey results and insights will be shared in the coming months.