KU Leuven's sustainable travel policy in 3 key points

Who are you, and what do you do at KU Leuven?

Annelies: ‘I coordinate the sustainable travel policy of KU Leuven, together with my colleagues. We focus specifically on staff business travel. We are more than 22,000 staff members, so every step has quite an impact. The policy is based on three pillars: avoid, shift and compensate. This means avoiding as many trips as possible, travelling sustainably (e.g. going by train instead of flying), and finally paying compensation for the trips that are made by plane.’

How did the sustainable travel policy come about?

Annelies: ‘In 2017, young researchers wrote an open letter proposing the introduction of travel compensation. The policy team responded positively, and in 2018 it was introduced with an opt-in system. Later, this was converted to an opt-out system, meaning that everyone is automatically included unless they choose not to compensate.’

How did staff react to this new policy?

Annelies: ‘In general, the reaction was positive. There is great support among staff. Of course, there are some exceptions: a small group of staff do not participate, sometimes out of principle or because of financial constraints. For example, they prefer to contribute to sustainability in another way.’

What are the main elements of the travel policy?

Annelies: ‘We work with the three key elements: avoid, shift and compensate.

• Avoid: We encourage employees to avoid travelling whenever possible, for example by organizing online meetings instead of physical meetings. This is especially true for 1-to-1 meetings and for meetings shorter than four hours.
• Shift: For trips that are necessary, we encourage the use of more sustainable means of transport, such as train instead of plane. For destinations that can be reached within eight hours by train, it is mandatory to take the train unless special permission is given.
• Compensate: For those trips that do have to be done by plane, the employee has to compensate. This involves looking at the right pricing and accurately calculating emissions, including factors such as radiative forcing, which maps the impact of CO2 at altitude.’

What are the biggest obstacles you encountered in implementing this policy?

Annelies: ‘One of the obstacles is finding the right balance between paying sufficiently to compensate and keeping the costs manageable. Compensation can become very expensive, especially in times of inflation. We eventually chose to raise the price gradually to keep it feasible for everyone. By 2026, EU legislation will mandate that compensation is already included in the airline ticket, so we continue to prepare for this.’

How do you ensure that the policy becomes accepted by employees?

Annelies: ‘We do a lot of awareness-raising and communication. Next week, for instance, we will give two presentations to employees about the new travel policy: why we are doing this, how we are approaching it, and what their role is in it. We also keep credit managers informed through explanatory emails, and we send regular awareness emails. This is how we inform people about the projects we support, such as reforestation projects in Ethiopia.’

What are the next steps for the sustainable travel policy?

Annelies: ‘We want to increase our commitment to train travel by offering financial intervention so that employees are more likely to take the train instead of flying. In addition, we are currently reviewing the purposes for which we use our compensation funds, to see if they are still relevant.’

 Do you have any tips for other organisations looking to introduce a sustainable travel policy?

Annelies: ‘Sometimes people wonder why an employee works almost full-time on this policy. But this is the only way we have been able to make such great strides. You have to realise that the process of becoming more sustainable grows and you have to invest time and resources to achieve real change. You can also look wider than just travel, for instance at sustainable accommodation. Creating awareness is the first step towards a bigger change.’