Meeting commenced at 1:01pm
Present: Robert McLachlan (Massey), Sal Lampkin (Chair; Massey), Sherry Tseng (Otago), Charlie Potter (Admin; Massey), Brendan Moyle (Massey), Simon McCallum (Victoria), Gillian Lewis (Auckland), Sylvia Nissen (Lincoln), Susanne Becken (Griffith), Tim Ryley (Griffith), Jan Evans-Freeman (Canterbury), Len Gillman (AUT), Corey Peterson
Apologies: Quentin Atkinson (Auckland), Bronwyn Hayward (Canterbury), David Hall (AUT)
Karakia
Chair Welcome and Update
The Chair welcomed Susanne Becken from Griffith University and Len Gillman from AUT to their first AUATC meeting, along with guest Corey Peterson from University of Tasmania (UTAS).
The Chair Update included the consortium name change, quorum, deputy chair and meeting frequency following feedback and voting from members since the June meeting.
New Members
The consortium agreed to three academic staff members from UTAS joining AUATC, along with two new members from Australian National University. It was noted that this is an exciting development for the consortium, which looks forward to welcoming them all at the next meeting.
Conference hubs in NZ
There were no updates regarding conference hubs, but as there is still interest this item will be left on the agenda for future meetings.
Key contacts/ agencies list
There were no updates regarding this list of key contacts and agencies, but a third member volunteered to assist in compiling this. This will remain on the agenda for the next meeting.
University travel guidelines
The consortium discussed the recent updates to this document, suggesting that it should be kept to one page if possible. It was discussed that publicity such as a press release would be beneficial once the documented is online, and for it to be available in time for the RNZ interview with the Chair on 25 August.
A draft work-related travel policy accessible for download from the AUATC website was proposed, so that universities do not have to replicate work that has already been done.
The consortium discussed the need to account for student travel. Multiple universities agreed that student travel for study should be included in university carbon inventories, and some are already beginning to include it in their net zero carbon goals. It was confirmed that graduate students travelling for their courses are included in academic travel, and so ‘work-related travel’ was suggested as a better phrase than ‘academic travel’.
A voluntary pledge around individual air travel was proposed.
Updates re letter to political parties
There were no updates regarding a letter to political parties on behalf of AUATC. A draft of the letter will be shared with the consortium member shortly for comments.
The group agreed to send the same letter to funding bodies, so that air travel expectations can be built into funding requirements. This included a discussion around whether AUATC recommendations should be incorporated into PBRF measures. Another suggestion was to build carbon offsets into travel budgets.
AOB
Website domain name to be updated to AUATC.
The consortium agreed an agenda item next meeting to discuss the AUATC growth with incorporation of multiple Australian institutions.
The proposed online conference (hosted by Massey) will be pushed back to 2023.
Date of next meeting
Mon 3 October, 1pm – 2pm
Meeting closed at 2:00pm