Search results
1 – 2 of 2Anna Schreuer, Annina Elisa Thaller and Alfred Posch
This paper aims to explore the manoeuvring room of higher education institutions to take action to reduce emissions from academic flying. In particular, this study investigates…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the manoeuvring room of higher education institutions to take action to reduce emissions from academic flying. In particular, this study investigates how university staff and central actors in university management evaluate potential measures in this area.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors applied a single case study design encompassing an online survey directed at staff (N = 338) and 11 semi-structured interviews with key actors from management at an Austrian university. The authors used descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis to examine the data.
Findings
This study found considerable support among university staff in principle for implementing measures to reduce academic flying, but also serious concerns about the fairness and viability of some restrictive measures, especially disincentives and caps on flying. However, bans on short-haul flights were largely supported. Actors from university management saw their manoeuvring room limited by the potential resistance and non-compliance of staff, as well as by framework conditions external to the university.
Practical implications
Dedicated leadership is needed to facilitate broad commitment within the university and to avoid shifting the responsibility between different governance levels. Restrictive measures to reduce academic air travel will be more readily accepted if perceived as fair and viable.
Originality/value
Although several papers have addressed the behavioural and institutional factors that sustain extensive flying in academia, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first contributions to investigate the potentials and challenges of introducing measures to reduce air travel in higher education institutions.
Details
Keywords
Stefanie Hölbling, Gottfried Kirchengast and Julia Danzer
This study aims to investigate patterns in international travel behavior of scientific staff depending on the categories of gender, scientific field and scientific seniority…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate patterns in international travel behavior of scientific staff depending on the categories of gender, scientific field and scientific seniority level. The learning from salient differences possibly revealed may inform measures for reducing travel greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, especially for high-emitting staff groups, and help strengthen the equality between scientists of different categories concerning their travel behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
The study collected and used novel empirical data on travel GHG emissions from University of Graz scientific staff for five consecutive years (2015–2019) and used statistical analysis and inference to test and answer three distinct research questions on patterns of travel behavior.
Findings
The travel footprint of scientific staff, in terms of annual GHG emissions per scientist, exhibits various highly significant differences across scientific fields, seniority and gender, such as male senior natural scientists showing ten times higher per-person emissions than female junior social scientists.
Originality/value
The five-year travel GHG emissions data set across all fields from natural sciences via social sciences to humanities at a large university (Uni Graz, Austria, about 2,000 scientific staff) and across seniority levels from predocs to professors, both for female and male scientists, enabled a robust empirical study revealing distinct differences in travel GHG footprints of academic staff. In this way, the study adds valuable insights for higher research institutions toward effective GHG reduction policies.
Details