Flying High in Academia—Willingness of University Staff to Perform Low-Carbon Behavior Change in Business Travel

Abstract

This study aims to explore the factors that influence business travel decisions of university staff, in particular the extent and ways in which they are willing to reduce emission-intensive air travel, and the personal and structural barriers to such behavior change. Three strategies to reduce air travel were investigated: abstaining from particular events, substituting travel through virtual participation and mode shifting to ground-based public transport. We tested the effects of (1) specific decision factors for engaging in long-distance travel, choosing specific modes of travel and choosing virtual solutions; (2) former travel activities; (3) postponed trips due to COVID-19; and (4) sociodemographic factors, on the willingness of individuals to reduce air travel in a sample of university employees. We calculated regression models for the three strategies and added a qualitative analysis of open-ended comments. Former travel behavior as well as pro-environmental considerations play significant roles, influencing the willingness of employees to change their business travel behavior. Furthermore, we found that willingness to reduce air travel depends on the scope of behavior change. Although travel behavior is unevenly distributed across different subgroups, sociodemographic factors only play a minor role in the regression models. The present study adds to the limited body of quantitative research on the reduction potential of academic air travel, presenting an examination of university staff's willingness to change their long-distance travel behavior. Implications for university polices are discussed.

Reducing air travel emissions in academia: an exploration of universities’ manoeuvring room

“…In our case, for example, distinguished senior researchers that choose to fly less, may serve as role models for others and build broader support for measures to reduce academic flying. A key point, in line with our understanding of frequent flying in academia as a case of carbon lock-in, is that systemic change is necessary to enable individuals in academia to fly less (Whitmarsh et al , 2020; Nursey-Bray et al , 2019; Thaller et al , 2021b). Yet, this systemic change may be pushed forward by the embedded agency of committed and resourceful individuals (Garud et al , 2007).…”

“…Finally, we collected sociodemographic data, in particular concerning staff type (predoc researchers/postdoc researchers and lecturers/professors/administrative staff). Further questions on travel behaviour and travel decision factors were evaluated in a separate study (Thaller et al , 2021b). The survey was completed by 355 staff members, but we excluded those with an incorrect answer to the control question, leaving a final sample size of n = 338 (267 academic and 71 administrative staff, response rate 11.5%).…”

“…Comprehensive policies at the institutional level are needed to enable academics to reduce their travel emissions and to remove structural barriers (Nursey-Bray et al , 2019; Kreil and Stauffacher, 2021). This also requires deep and systemic changes at the organisational level (Leal Filho et al , 2018), especially if the scale of desired behaviour change is fundamental (Thaller et al , 2021b).…”

Unmasking mobility patterns: international travel behavior and emissions of scientists in a higher research institution

“…Simultaneously to the current study, a survey was conducted at the University of Graz that investigated the willingness to reduce flight travel (Thaller et al , 2021) and the support of reducing flight travel measures amongst the staff (Schreuer et al , 2023). Thaller et al (2021) found that the willingness to reduce future international air travel is generally high for a clear majority of scientists, depending also on previous experiences and the event type creating the purpose for travel. The willingness to reduce flight trips is found to be higher for shifting to a different travel mode than for shifting to online participation or abstaining from participation.…”

“…A first step to reduce travel GHG emissions could be to identify “unnecessary” trips (Pargman et al , 2022), especially those taken by the high emitting scientist groups, i.e. natural sciences and senior researchers, according to the results of this study, and hence avoid the necessity to fly (Creutzig et al , 2018) and the trips themselves (Thaller et al , 2021).…”