
Grounded Organisations
More and more organisations choose to stay grounded. Find here inspiring examples of universities and NGOs and concrete measures they implemented to reduce their air travel.
Find below the list of organisations that filled in our survey and indicated measures they (will) implement to stay grounded:
Platform
Type of organisation: NGO
Name of organisation: Platform
Implemented measures
- Incentives for grounded travel (e.g. train/bus travel is reimbursed even if more expensive than flights, price reduction on train travel tickets)
- Virtual meeting facilities and learning platforms available and regularly used by all employees, technical support and training
- When planning events in Europe, consideration of their good reachability by ground-bound travelling for European guests
- Ban or limit of flights for journeys under a certain distance
- Supporting longer stays where realistic, to make slow travel more feasible. Employees who must travel long distances are encouraged to stay for an extended period of time enabling slower travel with reduced frequency.
- Any flights require approval at a Monthly Meeting.
Email address of contact person:
Website: https://platformlondon.org/
Country: United Kingdom
Number of staff (full-time equivalent): 10
FERN
Type of organisation: NGO
Implemented measures:
- Regular data collection and reporting of plane trips and their GHG emissions
Awareness raising about travel emissions within the organisation (info events, fact sheets,…) - Obligatory form and travel decision tree to justify air travel
- Incentives for grounded travel (e.g. train/bus travel is reimbursed even if more expensive than flights, price reduction on train travel tickets)
- If flights are unavoidable: ban or limit of indirect or business class flights
- Virtual meeting facilities and learning platforms available and regularly used by all employees, technical support and training
- When planning events in Europe, consideration of their good reachability by ground-bound travelling for European guests
- Ban or limit of flights to destinations which can be reached by ground-bound alternatives below 8 hours
- We encourage people to combine business trips that require flying so they can visit (for example) two African countries at once.
- We have told the Board we will let them know each Board meeting whether our flights are going up or going down.
- We do not think that offsetting works, but we are considering creating a fund which we pay into each time we fly so as to increase the price of flying.
- Air travel reduction goals
Travel policy: Fern Travel Policy
Considered measures:
- Internal carbon prices that make plane trips more expensive within the organisation
- Internal CO₂ budget or limit for the number of inter-continental, continental or domestic flights per person/unit/organisation
Contact: Richard Wainwright,
Website: http://www.fern.org
Country: Belgium
Number of staff (full-time equivalent): 18
Ecologistas en Accíon
Type of organisation: NGO
Implemented measures
- Awareness raising about travel emissions within the organisation (info events, fact sheets,…)
- Travel decision tree that requires to justify travel emissions)
- Disincentives for air travel bonus miles
- If flights are unavoidable: ban or limit of indirect or business class flights
- Virtual meeting facilities and learning platforms available and regularly used by all employees, technical support and training
- When planning events in Europe, consideration of their good reachability by ground-bound travelling for European guests
- Ban or limit of flights for journeys under a certain distance (e.g.: no flights allowed under 1.000 km, to nearby cities, within country or continent)
- Ban or limit of flights to destinations which can be reached by ground-bound alternatives below a certain time (e.g. 6 hours)
- Concrete air travel emission reduction goals
Measures that will be implemented
- Incentives for grounded travel (e.g. train/bus travel is reimbursed even if more expensive than flights, price reduction on train travel tickets)
Considered measures
- Regular data collection and reporting of plane trips and their GHG emissions
Contact person: Pablo Muñoz Nieto;
Website: https://www.ecologistasenaccion.org/
Country: España
Number of staff (full-time equivalent): 15
University of Sheffield
Type of organisation: University
Implemented measures:
- Virtual meeting facilities and learning platforms available and regularly used by all employees, technical support and training
Measures that will be implemented
- Regular data collection and reporting of plane trips and their GHG emissions
- Awareness raising about travel emissions within the organisation (info events, fact sheets,…)
- Incentives for grounded travel (e.g. train/bus travel is reimbursed even if more expensive than flights, price reduction on train travel tickets)
- If flights are unavoidable: ban or limit of indirect or business class flights
- When planning events in Europe, consideration of their good reachability by ground-bound travelling for European guests
- Ban or limit of flights for journeys under a certain distance (e.g.: no flights allowed under 1.000 km, to nearby cities, within country or continent)
- Executive level ownership of sustainable business travel agenda
- Development and publication of institutional sustainable travel principles
- Commitment to embed sustainable travel principles across University procedures and guidance
Measures that are being considered
- Ban or limit of flights to destinations which can be reached by ground-bound alternatives below a certain time (e.g. 6 hours)
- Travel decision tree that requires to justify travel emissions
- Internal carbon prices that make plane trips more expensive within the organisation
- Internal CO₂ budget or limit for the number of inter-continental, continental or domestic flights per person/unit/organisation
Website: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/
Country: United Kingdom
Number of staff (full-time equivalent): 8000
Umanotera, the Slovenian foundation for sustainable development
Type of organisation: NGO
Implemented measures:
- Regular data collection and reporting of plane trips and their GHG emissions
- Awareness raising about travel emissions within the organisation
- If flights are unavoidable: ban or limit of indirect or business class flights
- Virtual meeting facilities and learning platforms available and regularly used by all employees, technical support and training
- When planning events in Europe, consideration of their good reachability by ground-bound travelling for European guests
- Ban of flights to destinations which can be reached by ground-bound alternatives below 10 hours of travel time
Measures that are being considered:
- Travel decision tree that requires to justify travel emissions
See Umanotera’s overall GHG mitigation policy (in Slovenian) here.
Contact person: Jonas Sonnenschein,
Website: https://umanotera.org
Country: Slovenia
Number of staff (full-time equivalent): 5
University of Neuchâtel
Type of organisation: University
Implemented measures:
- Regular data collection and reporting of plane trips and their GHG emissions
- Awareness raising about travel emissions within the organisation (info events, fact sheets,…)
- Travel decision tree that requires to justify travel emissions
- Incentives for grounded travel (e.g. train/bus travel is reimbursed even if more expensive than flights, price reduction on train travel tickets)
- If flights are unavoidable : ban or limit of indirect or business class flights
- Virtual meeting facilities and learning platforms available and regularly used by all employees, technical support and training
- When planning events in Europe, consideration of their good reachability by ground-bound travelling for European guests
- Internal carbon prices that make plane trips more expensive within the organisation (based on the calculator of myclimate; see more here in French)
- Public individual commitment by scientists to grounded travel practices (see more here in French)
Contact Person: Jean-Marie Grether,
Website: http://www.unine.ch/unine/home.html
Country: Switzerland
Number of staff (full time equivalent): 750
See the detailed travel policy in French here.
Flight Free Australia
Type of organisation: NGO
Implemented measures:
- Regular data collection and reporting of plane trips and their GHG emissions
- Awareness raising about travel emissions within the organisation (info events, fact sheets,…)
- Travel decision tree that requires to justify travel emissions
- Disincentives for air travel bonus miles
- Incentives for grounded travel (e.g. train/bus travel is reimbursed even if more expensive than flights, price reduction on train travel tickets)
- If flights are unavoidable: ban or limit of indirect or business class flights
- Virtual meeting facilities and learning platforms available and regularly used by all employees, technical support and training
- When planning events in Europe, consideration of their good reachability by ground-bound travelling for European guests
- Internal carbon prices that make plane trips more expensive within the organisation
- Internal CO₂ budget or limit for the numberof inter-continental, continental or domestic flights per person/unit/organisation
- Ban or limit of flights for journeys under a certain distance (e.g.: no flights allowed under 1.000 km, to nearby cities, within country or continent)
- Ban or limit of flights to destinations which can be reached by ground-bound alternatives below a certain time (e.g. 6 hours)
- Air travel emission reduction goals: 100% reduction
Website: https://flightfree.net.au
Country: Australia
Bristol Airport Action Network
Type of organisation: NGO
Implemented measures:
- Regular data collection and reporting of plane trips and their GHG emissions
- Awareness raising about travel emissions within the organisation (info events, fact sheets,…)
- Travel decision tree that requires to justify travel emissions
- If flights are unavoidable: ban or limit of indirect or business class flights
- Virtual meeting facilities and learning platforms available and regularly used by all employees, technical support and training
- When planning events in Europe, consideration of their good reachability by ground-bound travelling for European guests
- Internal CO₂ budget or limit for the number of inter-continental, continental or domestic flights per person/unit/organisation
- Ban or limit of flights for journeys under a certain distance (e.g.: no flights allowed under 1.000 km, to nearby cities, within country or continent)
- Air travel emission reduction goals
Contact Person: Stephen Clarke,
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Bristol-Airport-Action-Network-BAAN-109098207105136/
Country: United Kingdom
Number of staff (full time equivalents): 2
Alofa Tuvalu
Type of organisation: NGO
Implemented measures:
- Awareness raising about travel emissions within the organisation (info events, fact sheets,…)
- Travel decision tree that requires to justify travel emissions
- Incentives for grounded travel (e.g. train/bus travel is reimbursed even if more expensive than flights, price reduction on train travel tickets)
- If flights are unavoidable: ban or limit of indirect or business class flights
- Virtual meeting facilities and learning platforms available and regularly used by all employees, technical support and training
- When planning events in Europe, consideration of their good reachability by ground-bound travelling for European guests
- Ban or limit of flights for journeys under a certain distance (e.g.: no flights allowed under 1.000 km, to nearby cities, within country or continent)
- Ban or limit of flights to destinations which can be reached by ground-bound alternatives below a certain time (e.g. 6 hours)
- Air travel emission reduction goals
- Cut travels to Tuvalu to 0 since 2012. Although before when doing these travels we made sure we stayed several months on location to amortize.
Website: http://www.alofatuvalu.tv/
Country: France
National Forum for Advocacy, Nepal
Type of organisation: NGO
Implemented measures:
- Incentives for grounded travel (e.g. train/bus travel is reimbursed even if more expensive than flights, price reduction on train travel tickets)
- If flights are unavoidable: ban or limit of indirect or business class flights
- Virtual meeting facilities and learning platforms available and regularly used by all employees, technical support and training
- Internal carbon prices that make plane trips more expensive within the organisation
- Ban or limit of flights for journeys under a certain distance (e.g.: no flights allowed under 1.000 km, to nearby cities, within country or continent)
- Ban or limit of flights to destinations which can be reached by ground-bound alternatives below a certain time (e.g. 6 hours)
Measures that will be implemented:
- Awareness raising about travel emissions within the organisation (info events, fact sheets,…)
Contact Person: Bhola Bhattarai,
Website: http://www.nafan.org.np
Country: Nepal
Number of staff (full time equivalents): 8
Global Forest Coalition
Type of organisation: NGO
Implemented measures:
- Awareness raising about travel emissions within the organisation (info events, fact sheets,…)
- Incentives for grounded travel (e.g. train/bus travel is reimbursed even if more expensive than flights, price reduction on train travel tickets)
- Virtual meeting facilities and learning platforms available and regularly used by all employees, technical support and training
- When planning events in Europe, consideration of their good reachability by ground-bound traveling for European guests
- Ban or limit of flights to destinations which can be reached by ground-bound alternatives below a certain time (e.g. 6 hours)
- GFC is constantly assessing how we can reduce flights including through continuous assessments and internal discussions on events’ relevant to our work, on how to combine different meetings (including internal meetings, capacity building, intergovernmental), sending GFC staff based in the region, exploring new ways and tools to facilitate online participation when possible, etc.
Contact person: Coraina de Plaza
Website: https://globalforestcoalition.org/
Number of staff (full-time equivalent): 12
Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS)
Type of organisation: University department
Implemented measures
- Regular data collection and reporting of plane trips and their GHG emissions
- Awareness raising about travel emissions within the organisation (info events, fact sheets,…)
- Travel decision tree that requires to justify travel emissions
- When planning events in Europe, consideration of their good reachability by ground-bound travelling for European guests
- Ban or limit of flights to destinations which can be reached by ground-bound alternatives below a certain time (e.g. 6 hours)
Measures that will be implemented until January 2022
- Virtual meeting facilities and learning platforms available and regularly used by all employees, technical support and training
- Internal carbon prices that make plane trips more expensive within the organisation
Contact Person: Wim Carton
Website: http://lucsus.lu.se
Country: Sweden
Number of staff (full-time equivalent): 40
Stay Grounded
Type of organisation: NGO
Implemented measures
- Ban of all flights for employees
- No payment of flights by partners/experts etc.
- Virtual meeting facilities and learning platforms available and regularly used by all employees, technical support and training
- When planning events in Europe, consideration of their good reachability by ground-bound travelling for European guests
- Organize “non-flight” events, calling for participants to join by grounded travel or online
Contact person: Magdalena Heuwieser;
Website: https://stay-grounded.org
Country: Austria
Number of staff (full-time equivalent): 2,5