Decarbonising Academia’s Flyout Culture

Abstract

Flight is technologically and culturally central to academic life. Academia’s flyout culture is built on a set of shared beliefs and values about the importance of flying to being an academic. But flight also generates a large proportion of academia’s carbon emissions, posing a cultural challenge to flight’s ongoing importance. In this chapter, we assess the underlying values animating flyout culture and examine how those values might change as universities respond to pressures to decarbonise operations. We approach this analysis in four parts. First, we identify six values that support flyout culture—values of ideas, efficiency, quality, evaluation, recreation and status. Second, we discuss how each value will be affected by four modes of decarbonisation: carbon offsets; shifting travel modes; centralised, infrequent or slow conferencing; and virtual communication. Third, we consider new values that may emerge as universities decarbonise: values of localism, climate concern, emissions transparency and verification. Finally, we discuss inertia that will resist change and optimism about how academia can realign its operations and culture with a liveable climate. As decarbonisation pressures grow, the interplay of cultural dimensions will determine if such efforts succeed or fail.

The choice between business travel and video conferencing after COVID-19 – Insights from a choice experiment among frequent travelers

“…In addition, reducing business travel also resonates with the environmental awareness of a significant number of business travelers, which we also found in our sample. However, challenges also arise when management is inclined to restrict employees from travelling and thus, for example, jeopardize employees' perceived career opportunities ( Higham, Hopkins, & Orchiston, 2019 ; Poggioli & Hoffman, 2022 ), challenge the self-concept of frequent travelers ( Becken & Hughey, 2021 ; Poggioli & Hoffman, 2022 ), or eliminate business travel as a fringe benefit ( Becken & Hughey, 2021 ; Roby, 2011 ). Establishing specific guidelines requires a profound knowledge of the situation of individuals, which in many companies could lead to the urgent need for the internal analysis of travel activities.…”