We’re delighted to announce that the University of Reading has been recognised for its ambitious business travel carbon budgets project that aimed to encourage schools and directorates cut their carbon emissions. The University has long made sustainability a central priority. As part of its strategic plan 2020-2026, the University of Reading is committed to ambitious environmental targets, including achieving Net Zero Carbon emissions by 2030. One of the key components of this plan was to address the carbon emissions resulting from business travel. The University acknowledged that the business travel is an area often overlooked despite the significant impact on an organisation’s overall carbon footprint.
In 2023 the University of Reading launched a new Business Travel Policy, which introduced carbon budgets for each of its Schools and Directorates, setting a target to reduce emissions by at least 30% against 2018/2019 baseline levels. To make this achievable, a new system was developed to monitor, analyse, and report emissions on a quarterly basis, providing clear data to staff and departments on their progress.
The project has exceeded expectations in its first year, reducing business travel emissions by 64%, saving 5,248 tCO2 compared to before COVID levels. This result is especially impressive considering the increased demand for international travel in the post pandemic world. Staff engagement has been crucial to the project’s success. Many staff members have actively sought information about their carbon budgets, leading to increased discussions about alternatives travel options like trains and virtual meetings. This shift in behaviour within staff members have play a crucial part in the University meeting its targets.
The project’s success has not only led to great success with reducing emission, but it has also created a strong foundation for future sustainability efforts. Moving forward the University plans to incrementally tighten targets to ensure that business travel emissions remain well below pre-COVID levels, ultimately supporting the University’s goal of achieving Net Zero by 2030.
Further reading:
- You can read the University’s Sustainable Travel Principles to find out more about how we approached this topic.
- Find out why travel is the next step on our decarbonisation journey.
- You can find out more about the Energy Management Awards (EMA) and the 2024 results on their website.
Sabat Azeez, Sustainability, University of Reading
