Meeting commenced at 10:08am
Present: Jan Evans-Freeman (Canterbury), Gillian Lewis (Auckland), Sylvia Nissen (Lincoln), Robert McLachlan (Massey), Sal Lampkin (Massey), Lin Roberts (Lincoln), Sherry Tseng (Otago), Christina Hanna (Waikato), Simon McCallum (Victoria), Quentin Atkinson
(Auckland), Charlie Potter (Administrator, Massey)
Apologies: James Higham (Otago), Matt Roskruge (Massey)
Presentation: Current University Activities- Otago University
The University of Otago presented the findings from NZUATC member university responses regarding air travel related activities. The presentation summarized and compared responses under the following headings: Policy, Transparency, Research and Actions. An
additional comprehensive PDF document (“Air travel related activities of member universities- all”) was emailed with the meeting agenda.
Some members found that the presentation and related document had not captured all the work currently happening at their university. Suggestions were made to amend the documents to include a more accurate snapshot of current positions, but the consortium instead agreed to use the current data as a starting point and update it with progress in a few months’ time.
Tribal Data was recommended as a reliable, comprehensive, and cost-effective source of data for air travel per capita.
The consortium discussed the source of air travel budgets for different universities. It was noted that often academic air travel is funded by outside sources, so reducing internal budgets isn’t necessarily an effective way to reduce air travel.
Air Travel Surveys- findings so far
The consortium discussed the apprehension from early-career academics regarding the effect of being potentially less able to travel, as well as the issues around more established academics who view international travel as an intrinsic part of their job. It was noted that most air travel (approx. 80%) is undertaken by a small group of experienced academics.
A scheme to cut domestic air travel to allow overseas travel was discussed. This would allow academics to “save-up” for flights by avoiding domestic trips wherever possible and banking that travel for use with more valuable overseas flights.
Carbon credits were mentioned as an inevitable part of each university’s efforts to reach 2030 goals.
The future inclusion of international student travel was discussed, as international student flights are a far bigger contributor to carbon emissions than staff travel. Many member universities have considered this. It was agreed that accurate data would be much harder to capture, as the universities have no financial oversight with student travel. In addition to student international air travel, the need for research into domestic student commuting habits was also discussed.
AOB
Minutes
The consortium confirms the minutes of the NZUATC meeting held on 5 July 2021 as a true and accurate record of the meeting.
Chair and Deputy
A chair and deputy have not yet been chosen.
Contact Details
The contact details have not yet been updated for all members.
NZUATC Website
It was suggested that the website is hosted from a country with renewable energy such as Iceland (100%) or Norway (85%). There were also options in the USA and Australia. The consortium discussed funding opportunities and ongoing maintenance and will continue to develop this.
Overseas Conferences
The consortium discussed the possibility of approaching hotels and conference organizers around New Zealand in order to video link to European conferences and run a schedule according to European time zones. This would limit the need f
international air travel and would provide a more workable environment (with catering, adjusted schedules etc.) for conference attendees in New Zealand. It would also encourage professional relationships between academics in New Zealand, as they would be
experiencing the conference together rather than alone at home or work.
Meeting closed at 11:04am