Academic Air Travel is a fascinating and challenging area of study. Find out more about it and about how other institutions are working to address it here.
Overview
The global climate and biodiversity crises pose challenges to all sectors, including higher education. Aviation's role in academia has come under increasing scrutiny, particularly in light of the broad lockdowns imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the large shift to primarily online forms of teaching, learning, and conferencing.
There are important questions to be asked regarding the future of academic air travel, at UBC and at all higher education institutions. Learn about some of these questions, what researchers have found, and about how different institutions are addressing the challenge of reducing their own air travel below.
Research and Reading
- The complex links between academic work and air travel have been extensively culturally examined: The open-source text Academic Flying and the Means of Communication provides a thorough overview of the culture and problems of university air travel, as well as a number of solutions across all levels.
- Numerous global researchers and scholars have contributed to the body of work examining the particular challenges and problems associated with high levels of academic flying and how to reduce it. Some such research examines linkages between academic air travel and:
- Professor Derek Hall of Wilfred Laurier University published an examination of Canadian Universities' policies and programs concerning reducing air travel in 2024. He determined that while some progress had been demonstrated within Canada, university air travel remains a largely unaddressed problem, and that all institutions will need to significantly increase their efforts to reduce air travel to more sustainable levels.
- UBC Researchers and Academics have also contributed to these topics as well:
- Seth Wynes and Simon Donner conducted a thorough examination of UBC travel data from a top-down and bottom-up sampling method to look at the distribution of flights across the UBC community, the reasons for traveling, and possible interventions, many of which remain relevant for UBC.
- The UBC SEEDS Sustainability Program has produced numerous research projects pertaining to reducing UBC air travel and its associated emissions. Some sample papers include:
Actions at other institutions
UBC is not alone in facing the challenge of needing to reduce emissions from business air travel. Other institutions in Canada and across the world are also taking action.
The University of Toronto
The University of Toronto's Air Travel Emissions Mitigation Initiative (ATEMI), implemented in 2023, raises funds for campus-based carbon offsetting projects through an internal surcharge on all of the university's non-research flights. The surcharge rate is based on the flight distance, and all projects are subject to a set of rigorous criteria to ensure that they produce measurable CO2 offsetting.
ETH Zurich
The ETH Zurich Air Travel Project includes a series of measures to help staff and faculty reduce their air travel emissions, including decision-making tools, and facilitating access to virtual telecommunications technologies. In addition, some departments have instituted their own initiatives, such as the Department of Environmental Systems Science, which instituted a program similar to the University of Toronto: a surcharge on flights and corresponding fund for departmental climate action and research.
Universitat Zurich (UZH)
The UZH air travel program includes a binding directive from its Executive Board of Governors that all departments not allow air travel levels to surpass 60% of pre-COVID-19 levels, and that all departments reduce their air travel emissions by at least 3% each year after 2022. The departments were allowed to decide upon their own methods for reducing their air travel emissions. These methods can be viewed on the UZH Air Travel Project page.
3/4
According to the QS World Sustainability Rankings 2025, 3 of the 4 top-ranking universities have implemented an internal surcharge on flying.