Sustainable Travel
Corpus Christi College, as a College of the University of Cambridge, has adopted the University’s Guidelines for Sustainable Business Travel for all travel that is undertaken for the research, education and business purposes of the College by Fellows, staff and students. The Guidelines do not apply to personal travel, such as students travelling to/from the College for term, or fellows and staff commuting to/from home.
This summary has been adapted for the College from the University’s Guidelines, which provide additional information and which can be viewed here. All members of College who are also members of the University are subject to the University Guidelines independently of this document. In the case of any apparent conflict between the University Guidelines and these College Guidelines, the University Guidelines shall be followed
The purpose of the Guidelines is to encourage and support a reduction in non-essential business travel and its associated carbon impacts. In particular, by adopting the Guidelines the College aims to achieve a reduction in the total number of flights and the total distance travelled by air by College fellows, staff and students. It is not the purpose of the Guidelines to limit all business travel.
Business travel includes, but is not limited to: Attendance at conferences/workshops; Academic meetings; Alumni engagement activities; Business or administrative meetings; Carrying out a research internship or project; Delivering a talk or lecture; Delivering or receiving a course/training; Examining a student dissertation; Fundraising activities and initiatives; Recruitment; Student admissions; Student activities (e.g. trips made by College societies); Widening participation and public engagement activities. The Guidelines apply to all business travel (when carried out by a member of the College), regardless of who has paid for the travel. They also apply to College-funded travel for visitors to the College.
By adopting the University Guidelines the College expects that the travel choices that fellows, staff and students make as part of their work and study are informed by the environmental impact that they have, and that preference is given to virtual collaboration and lower carbon travel modes. The University Guidelines (section 5.8) provide guidance on what should be considered as essential or non-essential travel, and additional guidance specific to different career stages.
The University Guidelines (section 5.10) provide a hierarchy of travel modes, based on carbon impact, to support informed decision making for essential travel. The environmental cost of travel should be prioritised over the financial cost and over individual convenience, but not over: i) safety considerations; ii) restrictions from caring responsibilities; iii) considerations from disability or health conditions, where following the Guidelines would be detrimental.
Fellows, staff and students should:
- Consider using virtual communication methods instead of travelling, reducing the number of people travelling, or picking a closer destination to reduce travel distance;
- Prioritise modes of travel that have the lowest carbon impact;
- Where available, prefer public transport over car use;
- Prefer train travel over air travel for European destinations that can be reached within six hours from London terminals and for all domestic travel;
- Where air travel is necessary, make Economy Class bookings.
Appropriate criteria for booking flights in a class above Economy Class are i) that the flight is more than 8 hours in duration and the traveller is working on behalf of the College (e.g. giving a lecture) within three hours of landing; and ii) when travel in Economy Class would be detrimental due to health or disability conditions.
These Guidelines do not affect or supersede the College’s existing travel application and approval procedures. Approvers should acknowledge that travel costs may increase as a result of following the Guidelines, and allow reasonable extra expenses to be claimed if they result from less carbon-intensive travel, such as additional subsistence expenses incurred due to increased travel time. Unless the travel is covered by the University Guidelines, the College does not request the use of the University’s preferred travel provider.
It is noted that a robust University scheme for off-setting carbon emissions from flights is under development and will be considered by the College for adoption in due course.