Mobility
Mobility at the University of Lucerne encompasses the everyday commuting behavior of university members and business trips in Switzerland and abroad. This includes study and research visits lasting several months. The University of Lucerne strives for sustainable mobility. It restricts climate-damaging means of travel and promotes more climate-friendly alternatives.
Commuting
In terms of local transportation, members and visitors of the University of Lucerne can benefit from the close proximity to the train station and Lucerne's bicycle network. There are no parking spaces available at the University of Lucerne. This relieves traffic in the city center and reduces environmental impacts (e.g. exhaust emissions).
Student Mobility
The University of Lucerne currently offers the program Greener Mobility, which is aimed at both incoming and outgoing students. The grants are awarded by Movetia as part of the Swiss Erasmus+ programs. The financial contributions of CHF 100 towards the respective rail journey are intended to promote environmentally friendly mobility within Europe for university members.
Business Travel
Business travel is an important part of a university's scientific work – it enables exchange with international research partners, participation in conferences, and the further development of projects and collaborations. At the same time, air travel in particular has a significant impact on the greenhouse gas balance.
In order to achieve its net-zero target by 2040 and thus fulfill its responsibility for climate protection, the University of Lucerne is committed to reducing its flight emissions and promoting more sustainable alternatives.
When choosing the means of transport for any journey, researchers and employees of the University of Lucerne must observe the rules set out in the expenses regulations and the associated ‘Expenses’ information sheet. Air travel is only reimbursed if the journey to the destination would take more than 7 hours by train. The Sustainability Office provides a list of important travel destinations in Europe and the corresponding train journey times from Lucerne railway station. The list shows whether the train journey is compulsory or optional.
The University of Lucerne's mobility decision tree was developed to support university members before and during travel planning. It serves as a guide and helps employees systematically check the following before registering or traveling:
- whether participation in an event is necessary, sensible, and expedient
- whether physical travel is necessary or virtual participation is an option
- and - if travel is necessary - which means of transport should be chosen, taking into account the expense regulations, faculty-internal travel guidelines, and sustainability aspects.
Flying fewer miles reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Below are tips and tools to help you plan sustainable business trips.
Virtual Presence
If a business trip can be replaced by digital participation, you save time and money – and do the climate a favour, as virtual meetings generally generate significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions than travel by plane, car or train.
- For hybrid and virtual formats, conference cameras are available that automatically focus on the person speaking in the room. The University of Lucerne’s IT support team is on hand to help with any questions or difficulties.
- Tools such as Miro also support creative collaboration in the virtual space.
Travelling by train or coach
Within Europe, trains and long-distance coaches are environmentally friendly travel options – and the time spent on the train can often be put to good use for work.
- Tools such as Chronotrains allow you to quickly estimate how long a train journey within Europe will take.
- Night trains are a climate-friendly alternative, particularly on longer journeys. The Night Train Map provides a good overview of existing connections.
- Ecopassenger makes it easy to compare the environmental impact of different modes of transport.
- Services such as SimpleTrain make booking train journeys simple and convenient.
Combining trips
Plan your travel as efficiently as possible by combining several appointments or purposes into a single trip. This helps to avoid separate journeys and reduces time, costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
- Where possible, combine a necessary business trip with a visit to a nearby partner university. Further information is available from the faculty’s Mobility Office.
- An Interrail pass allows you to combine appointments at different destinations cost-effectively.
Reduce the number of participants
Before registering, check how many team members need to attend an event and select them carefully – taking into account the need to be fair to early-career researchers.
When air travel is unavoidable
It is not always possible to avoid flying. If a flight is necessary, you can help make your journey as climate-friendly as possible by making conscious choices.
- Fly economy class, as is standard under the expenses policy.
- Where possible, opt for direct flights. In Europe in particular, non-stop flights are preferable to those with stopovers, as take-off and landing phases are particularly emission-intensive.
- Where possible, replace part of your journey with public transport. Feeder flights can often be replaced by train journeys.
- Consider the efficiency of the airline you choose. By selecting comparatively efficient airlines, flight emissions can be significantly reduced. The atmosfair Airline Index compares more than 200 airlines worldwide based on their CO₂ emissions per passenger and provides guidance on which airlines can fly more climate-friendly routes on your journey.
Compared to many other modes of transport, air travel has a significant impact on the climate. Air travel is often a major component of universities’ carbon footprints, as international conferences, research visits and project meetings have traditionally involved air travel. At the same time, recent developments show that academic exchange can, in many cases, be organised through other means.
At the University of Lucerne, emissions from business air travel are recorded and presented in the annual greenhouse gas report.
Below you will find facts and academic publications on the topic of air travel and climate.
Climate impact of air travel
When kerosene is burned, aircraft emit gases and particles at high altitudes. There, they often have a greater impact on the composition of the atmosphere than comparable emissions at ground level. In addition to carbon dioxide (CO2), these emissions include water vapour (H2O), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx) and soot. These emissions affect the chemical composition of the atmosphere and the concentration of greenhouse gases, cause contrails and can lead to the formation of additional cirrus clouds. Collectively, these effects contribute to global warming.
As a result, air travel is one of the emission-intensive modes of transport per passenger kilometre. The actual climate impact of a flight depends, among other things, on the flight distance, altitude, passenger load, and the type and age of the aircraft used.
Global air travel accounts for around 2 to 2.5% of global CO₂ emissions caused by fossil fuels. In Switzerland, the impact of aviation is significantly greater: in 2019, domestic and international air traffic accounted for around 13.5% of recorded CO₂ emissions and around 11% of total greenhouse gas emissions (in CO₂ equivalents) according to the Swiss Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
Due to the sharp increase in air traffic, this share of emissions continues to rise. Although technical and operational measures are leading to efficiency improvements, these cannot fully offset the rapidly growing demand for air travel.
Sources:
IPCC (1999). Aviation and the Global Atmosphere.
Lee et al. (2021). The contribution of global aviation to anthropogenic climate forcing for 2000 to 2018.
Klöwer et al. (2021). Quantifying aviation’s contribution to global warming.
Neu (2021). Die Auswirkungen der Flugverkehrsemissionen auf das Klima.
Emissions by transport mode & distance
When comparing modes of transport, greenhouse gas emissions per passenger-kilometre are often taken into account. This figure depends not only on the mode of transport itself, but also on the occupancy rate and the distance travelled.
Air travel generally produces significantly higher emissions per passenger-kilometre than rail travel. Even journeys in a car with an average occupancy (i.e. one person) can generate high emissions per passenger kilometre. As the number of passengers increases, the car’s per-person emissions improve accordingly.
However, air travel usually covers significantly greater distances than car journeys. As a result, total emissions per journey are often considerably higher.
Short-haul flights are usually more emission-intensive per passenger kilometre than long-haul flights, partly because take-off and landing are among the most emission-intensive phases of flight. If, on the other hand, one considers the total emissions per journey, these are generally significantly higher for long-haul flights, as greater distances are covered and correspondingly more fuel is consumed.
In most cases, rail and long-distance coach travel are among the most climate-friendly alternatives. They produce significantly fewer greenhouse gases per passenger-kilometre and overall than air travel or car journeys. Furthermore, they do not cause any additional climate impacts at high altitudes, such as the non-CO₂ effects associated with air travel. As a result, their overall climate impact is generally much lower.
In addition to emissions, modes of transport also differ in terms of productive travel time: whilst this is virtually non-existent for car journeys, it can account for a significant proportion of travel time on rail journeys – depending on the working environment.
Sources:
Ritchie (2023). Which form of transport has the smallest carbon footprint?
icct (2019). CO2 emissions from commercial aviation, 2018.
Air travel in academia
Due to the internationalisation of research and teaching, air travel has become a common feature of academic work at many universities. Conferences, research visits, teaching assignments and project meetings mean that academics and university staff fly more frequently than average, thereby accounting for a significant proportion of their institutions’ carbon footprint (greenhouse gas footprint). Depending on the university, greenhouse gas emissions from air travel can account for up to two-thirds of the total carbon footprint. At the University of Lucerne in 2024, aviation emissions accounted for around 63% of total recorded emissions.
Studies show, however, that frequent flying is not necessarily linked to greater academic success. Furthermore, a high carbon footprint can have a negative impact on perceived credibility, particularly among researchers working on environmental or climate issues.
Studies also show that frequent and long business trips can be physically and mentally taxing and may manifest as fatigue, stress or social strain due to prolonged absences, amongst other things. Fewer flights in the academic sector reduce the time spent away from family and friends and can improve the balance between private commitments and research tasks.
At the same time, digital formats, virtual conferences and careful travel planning have shown in recent years that some academic collaboration is possible even without air travel. Against this backdrop, it is worth planning business trips carefully and exploring alternatives.
Sources:
Sustainability Office. Greenhouse gas reports.
Bagutti et al. (2024). High altitude dilemmas: assessing academic air travel reduction measures by comparing reduction potential and willingness.
Tseng et al. (2022). Academic Air Travel Cultures: A Framework for Reducing Academic Flying.
Kreil (2021). Does flying less harm academic work? Arguments and assumptions about reducing air travel in academia.
Wynes et al. (2019). Academic air travel has a limited influence on professional success.
Virtual & hybrid conferences
Studies show that virtual and hybrid conference formats can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from scientific events. The majority of emissions from international conferences are usually generated by participants’ travel to and from the event – particularly by air travel. If this travel is partially or entirely replaced by virtual participation, the climate impact of a conference can be significantly reduced.
Studies of various scientific conferences show that, depending on how they are organised, virtual formats can reduce emissions by more than 90% compared to in-person events. Hybrid formats also often have significantly lower emissions than purely physical events. Emissions from digital infrastructure and video conferencing are usually low compared to air travel. For instance, the University of Zurich points out that a video conference would need to last around 8700 hours to match the greenhouse gas emissions of a return flight between Zurich and New York.
At the same time, studies suggest that virtual formats cannot replace all the benefits of face-to-face meetings, such as informal exchanges, spontaneous encounters or networking. Hybrid formats can therefore offer a way to combine academic collaboration with a lower climate impact.
Sources:
Tao et al. (2021). Trend towards virtual and hybrid conferences may be an effective climate change mitigation strategy.
Lewy et al. (2022). Quantifying the climate benefits of a virtual versus an in-person format for an international conference.
Bjørkdahl et al. (2022). Academic Flying and the Means of Communication.
Universität Zürich. Allgemeine Tipps: Reisen & virtuelle Präsenz.
Publications & studies
Below is a selection of further academic publications on the topic of air travel in a higher education context. Among other things, these studies examine institutional strategies for reducing air travel, the cultural and structural causes of academic air travel, and possible alternatives to business air travel.
- ETH Zurich. Akademische Projekte zur Reduzierung und Kompensation von Flugreisen.
- Wenger et al. (2025). Conference air travel’s relevance and ways to reduce it.
- Biørn-Hansen et al. (2024). Dealing with carbon: physicalisation of academic flying to support collective meaning-making for a low-carbon academia.
- Görlinger et al. (2023). An evidence-based approach to accelerate flight reduction in academia.
- Ciers et al. (2019). The carbon footprint of academic air travel.
The publications cited show that reducing academic air travel depends not only on individual behaviour, but is also influenced by institutional frameworks and existing incentive schemes within the academic sector.
