School of Environmental Sciences Sustainability

Air travel is incredibly carbon intensive, a return long haul journey can easily result in the emission of several tonnes of CO₂ per person.

School members are encouraged to look at alternatives to flying wherever possible. The University has its own video conferencing suite, and there are also software packages (e.g. Skype and GoToMeeting) freely available for less formal web-based meetings. If you are travelling to western Europe, the Virgin Rail/Eurostar connection is an easy one (entire journeys from Liverpool to France/Holland/Belgium/Germany/Switzerland can be booked through the Eurostar website). Seat61.com is another useful website for planning train journeys in Europe.

Another alternative is to offset the carbon emitted by your flight through investing in projects with a net positive environmental impact. Pure is a UK government-approved charity which allows individuals to do this (and save money doing so through giftaid). Note that the research councils (e.g. NERC) will not pay for carbon offsets but that others (e.g. EU funders) may. According to their grant handbook however, NERC may be happy to fund more expensive, but more sustainable journeys.