The environmental footprint of academic and student mobility in a large research-oriented university

Abstract

Academic mobility for field work, research dissemination and global outreach is increasingly recognized as an important contributor to the overall environmental footprint of research institutions. Student mobility, while less studied, also contributes to universities' environmental footprint. Université de Montréal (UdeM) is the largest university in Montréal, Canada. It has a research budget of 450M$, employs 1426 full-time professors, and has a total student population of 33 125 undergraduate and 12 505 graduate students. To assess the footprint of academic mobility at UdeM, we surveyed the research community (n=703; including professors, research professionals and graduate students) about their travel habits. We also measured the contribution from travel undertaken by sports teams and international students as well as students engaged in study abroad and internships programs using data provided by the university. While the average distance travelled for work and research purposes by the UdeM community is around 8525 km/person, professors travel more than 33 000 km/person per year. We also estimated that the 5785 international students or students enroled in study abroad programs travel annually around 12 600 km/person. UdeM's per capita annual travel-related C and N footprints vary, with international students generating for example 3.85 T CO 2 and 0.53 kg N while professors generate 10.76 T CO 2 and 2.19 kg N. Air travel emissions are the main contributors to these footprints. We provide insights into the distribution of travel-related environmental footprint within the university, the main reasons for travelling, the most frequent destinations, and the factors preventing researchers from reducing their travel-related environmental impact.

Decarbonising academia: confronting our climate hypocrisy

“…We invite academics to envisage a different way of doing our jobs. We first need to have the courage to audit our carbon footprint, and this may work best at the departmental level, as was done by Arsenault et al (2019). Many corporate travel agents all over the world already capture the carbon footprint of flights booked by clients, and they have the systems to report such data back, while additional carbon data on accommodation and activities can be extrapolated with some degree of confidence from the number of days travelled.…”

“…Third, we need to publicly share changes in policy as part of our collective experiment to manage our impacts, bearing in mind the reaction that this is likely to generate from all of us, at different points in time, when we see our rights to fly being impinged. This step is important in order to develop a growing collective sense of ownership for the actions required to make tourism academia less unsustainable, and because many staff do not have any interest in using technology for example to replace part of their travel (Arsenault et al, 2019). Fourth, we need to develop systems that allow academics to become more effective and efficient at doing their jobs in a less carbon intensive way.…”

“…There is now a growing body of work that critically reflects upon established academic practices in relation to climate hypocrisy. At the University of Montr eal, professors generate 10.76TCO 2 and 2.19kgN, resulting from their average 33000 km/person per year travelled (Arsenault, Talbot, Boustani, Gonzal es, & Manaugh, 2019). In this journal, Høyer and Naess (2001) were the first to highlight the climate hypocrisy of conference travel in the tourism field, noting the environmental burden of conference air travel, and commenting that " … it is questionable whether conferences are effective arenas for communicating and gathering knowledge".…”

Geographic versus institutional drivers of nitrogen footprints: a comparison of two urban universities

“…Official statistics on international students by home country and out-of-province Canadian students by home province were used to estimate total passenger kilometers travelled by mode (air or ground transport) to and from each university following the approach of Arsenault et al (2019). Students are assumed to take one round-trip per year from capital cities of their home countries or provinces (or the national population centroid for US students).…”

Rethinking conferences

“…But even with such measures in place, physics conferences have a carbon footprint that cannot be ignored. Travel comprises a substantial part of most academics' carbon footprint: for instance, Julien Arsenault and colleagues estimated that professors at Université de Montréal generate on average 10.76 T of CO 2 annually through work-related travel 1 , compared with 13.14 T of CO 2 per annum for the entire footprint of an average Canadian household. These impacts are ingrained in the nature of conferences, which bring delegates from around the world into a single location for a few days.…”