The Office of Sustainability is excited to announce the launch of the UC Berkeley Business Air Travel Carbon Mitigation Program. In a typical year, business air travel is the campus's second largest source of carbon emissions with the Berkeley community, taking more than 32,000 trips and emitting more than 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide! This new program will lessen the high environmental impacts of campus business air travel by investing in innovative and necessary on-campus projects that promote collaboration, measurable improvements and carbon emission reductions.
Unlike market carbon offsets that fund initiatives off-site, the Business Air Travel Carbon Mitigation Program invests in campus projects to improve operations across departments, saving energy and money, and helping the campus meet the goal of net-zero carbon emissions. By assessing a small fee to each air travel trip, Berkeley is creating a fund to support initiatives such as retrofitting conference rooms for hybrid meetings to reduce the need to travel, providing incentives to update lab equipment to reduce energy consumption, kick-starting new solar PV installations, and implementing action-oriented engagement campaigns. The inaugural projects will launch Spring 2023.
Berkeley has long been recognized for its commitment to sustainability and carbon solutions and this program provides the campus with new paths to continue leading the way. To learn more about the program, visit our website: sustainability.berkeley.edu
Questions can be directed to sustainability@berkeley.edu.