Our five year Integrated Sustainable Travel Plan sets out the key benefits for those using sustainable travel who work, live and study at the University; for the University itself; for the local community; for the local economy and for the environment. These are the three pillars of sustainability and throughout the ISTP we refer to the three most relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Good Health and Well-Being (SDG3), Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG11) and of course, Climate Action (SDG13).
Our new five-year Integrated Sustainable Travel Plan is currently being approved. It outlines our current data on travel, including commuting emissions. The 2024/25 data will be used as a new baseline for these emissions
The Integrated Sustainable Travel Plan also sets Carbon-related targets for these emissions, including interim SMART targets:
The Integrated Sustainable Travel Plan Steering Group provides the management support required to take forward the strategic decisions of the University relating to travel Planning, including contributing to the establishment of the Integrated Sustainable Travel Plan 2026-2031.
Progress on targets around active and sustainable travel is reported to the University’s Environmental Sustainability Strategic Planning Group (ESSPG).
Information detailing sustainable travel options including walking and cycling and public transport for commuting to, and travel around the University and Durham City, are available on our Travel information website.
The University measures the impact of much of our travel and reports some of this as part of our partial Scope 3 emissions in our annual report and to HESA – this includes Carbon emissions data arising from our fleet and from our Business Travel.
As well as these means, we measure the impact of staff and student commuting, including through annual surveys. This year we participated in a project on staff commuting to get granular detail by working with the North East Combined Authority. This showed that the Average Commuter Emissions Level (ACEL) is 571, which equates to an average of 571 kg CO2e per employee per year through commuting behaviour and the average distance commuted one-way being 14.4 miles.
This data enables us to set ambitious and meaningful targets for more sustainable commuting, including by walking, cycling, car sharing, electric vehicles, and public transport. We are currently drafting our refreshed Integrated Sustainable Travel Plan which will be adopted in January 2026 to run for the next five years. This will outline actions as well as targets for staff, student and wider community travel to and from the University as well as travel undertaken between sites and business travel.
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