What You Can Do
 

When considering your business travel needs, you can make choices that reduce or eliminate the cost and environmental impact of your meetings, conferences, and other events. Following the travel hierarchy below may save you time, save money, and reduce your impact on the environment.

Virtual Conferencing: Connecting by phone, email, or a virtual conferencing platform has the lowest overall environmental impact. Consult your local IT support team (LSP) for guidance about video conferencing tools. More information about tools can be found here.

Walking and Biking: When travel is necessary, walking and cycling are the least impactful modes of transportation for local travel. Even when traveling in another region, consider walking, biking, or using public transit instead of taking a car to get around the area.

Rail & Public Transit: Trains and other forms of public transit can be convenient and efficient options for longer-range travel when biking, walking, or virtual conferencing are not possible. Preference should be given to trains when making trips under 300 miles (e.g. from Philadelphia along the I-95 corridor).

Driving: When driving is the only practical option, consider carpooling or car share programs. The Business Ride Share Program @ Penn provides many program options that includes central billing, Auto-Payment, and campus visitor transportation. The program supports Penn’s sustainability initiative where each ride is carbon offset. You can learn more about program here.

Plane: Utilize flying when it is the only feasible option. Short flights have higher emissions per distance flown as flight take off accounts for a greater portion of emissions. For example, the carbon output per mile to fly to Boston is significantly higher than to fly to San Francisco as a larger percentage of the mileage is spent climbing. To counter this, utilize trains rather than shorter distance flights when possible.

Learn how more about sustainable travel booking options