Sustainable travel

The University of Leeds Climate Plan includes our commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Greenhouse gas emissions from business travel, staff and student commuting are included within our target to deliver net zero by 2030, but given the complexity of this area these are addressed within the Climate Plan principle for Sustainable Travel.

We have committed to reducing the impact of business and commuting travel with the aim to achieve and maintain emissions at 50% of 2018/19 levels (our baseline), while balancing our commitment to academic excellence. Interim targets will be co-developed with staff and students and reviewed as the Sustainable Travel Programme progresses.

The timelines to achieve this target will be led by the outcomes of consultation with the whole University community.

Sustainable Travel is clearly an important issue for the University community. It is one of the more tangible climate principles which students and staff can share ownership of.  

We acknowledge that the biggest challenge this last year has been a lack of dedicated resource and capacity on this principle. Work is ongoing to address this for 2024.

Progress made in 2022/23

Interactive workshop

In March 2023, a University-wide, inclusive and interactive workshop was co-designed to foster collaboration across diverse parties of interest. The objectives were:

• Inform the membership of a Sustainable Travel Steering Group that captures key stakeholder priorities, actions and manages progress.
• Redefine our approach and agree priority actions to contribute to the ‘Achieving Sustainable Travel’ principle.
• Co-develop new interventions and travel policies to accelerate progress towards decarbonisation, health and wellbeing, and travelling safely and sustainably to and from our places of work or study. 

Business travel 

Objective: Reduce the impact of business travel with the aim to achieve and maintain emissions at 50% of 2018/19 levels, while balancing our commitment to academic excellence. 

Building upon the outcomes of the interactive workshop, we are in the process of developing an inclusive, representative and equitable approach to tackling business travel emissions.

Originally, the Shared Futures organisation was engaged to run a participatory process focussed on business travel at the University. However, over the last year, we made the decision to pause and re-evaluate this approach.   

Commuting travel

Objective: Reduce the impact of commuting travel with the aim to achieve and maintain emissions at 50% of 2018/19 levels, while balancing our commitment to academic excellence.

Annual travel survey

We carried out the annual travel survey to better understand the travel behaviours of our staff and students and to help inform emissions data reporting and future policies and interventions.

For the first time, we also estimated the emissions associated with students travelling to the University from their home address. 

Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme

We have received approval in principle to develop an electric vehicle (EV) salary sacrifice scheme. This would improve the affordability of EVs for staff.

Our requirements for this – including what vehicles would be eligible for the scheme – will be developed and taken for further approval at the appropriate University committees before tendering for a supplier. 

Cycling

We are working on making cycling to work more inclusive.

We are exploring an option for lower paid members of staff who may not be eligible for the salary sacrifice element of our current Cycle to Work scheme due to their salary and the National Living Wage.

Further work on commuting

• We have supported the delivery of an extensive student communications campaign normalising and promoting sustainable commuting and active travel amongst the student body.
• We have continued the transition from non-renewable fossil fuels to electric and hybrid alternatives – our University fleet of 65 vehicles now has 24 electric and five hybrid vehicles.
• We have worked with Leeds City Council and Beryl Bikes on the Leeds City Bikes Scheme (a city-wide e-bike sharing scheme) and have installed e-bike docks at five locations across our campus.
• We have actively promoted city and regional consultations related to travel, encouraging the University community to get their voices heard.

Electric vehicle charging

We have upgraded and expanded the electric vehicle charging Infrastructure on campus to meet future demand.

The existing electric car charging infrastructure (apart from the multi storey car park) was replaced with new charging units, capable of charging two vehicles (see table 1, following). The charging units are supported by back-office management software to monitor usage and electricity consumption. 

Table 1: Electric vehicle charging infrastructure progress status as of December 2023 

Emissions data

Calculating travel emissions data is a complex process and each year we aim to improve our emissions data collection and analysis, to reflect a true record. 

Student and staff commuting

The annual travel survey collects student and staff commuting data. Low survey response rates are a key challenge.  

For 2022/23, we increased the number of prizes for completing the survey, and we held an in-person event at Leeds University Union to encourage participation, as well as utilising University communication channels. 

Accurately completing the annual travel survey is a tangible activity that staff and students can do which will have a direct impact on the Sustainable Travel programme.  

Business travel

Business travel data is collected via several sources: Key Travel, direct from suppliers, and internal expense data.

Improvements to these data sets are essential. It will require both operational and individual behaviour change to make these improvements. 

Within Sustainable Travel we have a dedicated Data, Evidence and Processes Group which will advise on such improvements.

Plans for 2024

As a priority we will continue developing the business case for the programme, highlighting resourcing and capacity needs. To deliver on our ambitious plans for the year ahead, the programme needs to be adequately resourced. 

As well as continuing with activities listed previously (eg Leeds City Bike Scheme, Electric Vehicle Salary Sacrifice), and working with the wider city and region, we will also working on the following areas.

Business travel  

We will continue developing an inclusive, representative, and equitable approach to tackling business travel emissions. 

We will draw conclusions and make recommendations to the Sustainable Travel Steering Group. 

We will work with MSc programme leaders for Sustainable Cities and Climate Futures to commission projects on specific issues relating to travel.  

Electric vehicles

We will review usage and energy consumption, and investigate the potential need for fee-charging to cover maintenance and administration costs, and future funding of new electric vehicle charging infrastructure. 

Data

We will identify where and how data collection can be smoother, more accurate and more robust to ensure compliance and better monitoring. 

Travel booking processes

We will investigate the potential for implementing tighter pre-travel approval within existing business travel booking processes. 

We will gather learnings and reflections from staff on their current business travel experiences relative to lower carbon alternatives, working in collaboration with the participatory process mentioned previously. We will analyse findings to inform any future policies or interventions. 

Programme governance

We will continue setting up the programme governance structure and membership. 

We will hold inaugural project group meetings early in 2024.

The Sustainable Travel Project Groups, Management Group and Steering Group will co-develop a Sustainable Travel Strategy, including interim targets up to 2030.

We will continue developing the business case for the programme, highlighting resourcing and capacity needs. 

Opportunities for further collaboration

We will identify where collaboration is possible across other Climate Principles to reach university climate targets.

We will identify where collaboration is possible across the whole University.

We will work with the Equality and Inclusion Unit, the Just Transition team, and Wellbeing, Safety and Health Services to ensure that any interventions or policy changes made are done so in a fair way. 

Reflections

Sustainable Travel is an exciting programme that staff and students clearly care about and want to get involved with. 

The inaugural workshop was described as inclusive and inspiring by the staff and students who attended. Engagement was high with participants keen to be involved in shaping our future sustainable travel policy to the benefit of the whole University community. 

The biggest challenge this last year has been an unplanned reduction in dedicated resource and capacity on this programme. Staffing changes also had an impact.  However, we have succeeded in strengthening the foundation of the programme and look forward to filling the identified resource gaps to deliver our ambitious targets.