New tool provides overview of air travel at Health
Aarhus University is launching a new measurement tool that provides an overview of the number of international trips at both faculty and department levels. This is an important step towards reaching the faculty's climate goals, says Dean Anne Mette-Hvas.
Aarhus University aims to reduce the climate impact from air travel by 30% by 2025 compared to 2018.
Until now, it has been challenging to measure the number of trips, but this will change with the introduction of the measurement tool in 'Power BI', which allows data extraction and report generation on international trips. The new measurement tool is already in use, and Dean Anne-Mette Hvas emphasizes its significance for the faculty's climate efforts in the coming years.
"With the new measurements, we can monitor the number of international trips at both faculty and department levels and at an overall AU level. Department heads and department secretariat leaders also have access to their own department reports," says Anne-Mette Hvas.
About the reports from 'Power BI'
- The reports include key figures, tables, and graphs that show the development of international trips at three levels: university, faculty, and department.
- Data is updated monthly, but there is a 90-day delay in the system because employees have three months to settle their travel activities.
- It is not yet possible to extract 100% accurate data on employees' use of air travel.
- From 2025, it will be possible to measure more specifically on air travel via data from RejsUd.
- The base year for the climate goal in AU’s overall climate strategy is 2018. However, there is not enough travel data from 2018, so the baseline in Power BI reports is set to 2019.
"The tool is not perfect"
Many book business trips outside AU’s travel agency, Carlson Wagonlit Travel. Partly because of this, the new tool equates the number of flights with international trips. However, from 2025 it will be possible to measure the number of flights specifically via data from RejsUd.
"Although the tool is not perfect, it is useful for tracking the development of travel activity," says Anne-Mette Hvas, adding:
"We can see the number of international trips over time, percentage changes in travel activity, and also the most frequent travel destinations."
According to Aarhus University's Climate Strategy, air travel constitutes a significant part of our total CO2 emissions. Overall, Health is well on its way to AU’s goal of reducing the climate impact from air travel by 30% by 2025 compared to 2018, but there is still a way to go, according to the faculty management.
Ongoing follow-up work
University management will follow up on the reduction targets in the annual goal follow-up at each faculty, but according to Anne-Mette Hvas, a natural step at Health is to find a way for management to better inform employees about the developments and actively use the figures.
"One can imagine a solution where it is possible to follow the developments at individual departments on the faculty's website. Moreover, colleagues in the communications department are working on a format for the faculty's internal newsletter Inside Health, where travel statistics will be a regular feature. We will continuously improve and adapt the tool to help us as best as possible in achieving our travel goals," says Anne-Mette Hvas.
Learn more about your own CO2 emissions
If you want to know more about how much your international trip or choice of transport affects the environment, the steering group behind AU’s Green Guide has developed a tool that all employees at Aarhus University can use to calculate a trip's CO2 emissions.
You can access the tool and get a clearer overview on the university's employee website.
Contact
Dean Anne-Mette Hvas
Aarhus University, Health
Phone: 87 15 20 07
Email: dean.health@au.dk