One of the main topics of the Academic Staff Council has long been sustainability. Together with the Administrative Staff Council, we have organized a series of events on this topic entitled "Climate and Work", the last of which took place in January 2020. At that time, we collected ideas to improve WU's sustainability and measures requested by the participating employees, which we later presented to the Rector's Council. The focus was mainly on social benefits and mobility. The wissBR is therefore very pleased that the Rector's Council is now taking concrete action in the area of sustainability with regard to travel activities. We would also like to take these changes as an opportunity to report more broadly on the topic of sustainability at WU.

With regard to travel activities, the wissBR finds improvements in the assumption of costs for rail travel particularly important (e.g. the assumption of costs for sleeper cars on longer journeys as an alternative to air travel or the assumption of costs for rail travel in cases where air travel would be the cheaper alternative) in order to incentivise rail travel. In terms of social benefits, employees would like WU to offer job bicycles and job tickets, which provide incentives for a more sustainable everyday mobility. Many companies already offer a broad set of such benefits. We believe that such measures can generally improve satisfaction with WU as a workplace and give real substance to commitments to greater ecological awareness.

Business travel

WU has now made concrete changes to the regulations for academic staff’ conference travel as part of the Travel Allowance Directive. These changes will soon also be included in the operational agreement for business trips (BV Dienstreise). A key aspect of the changes is the inclusion of the principle of sustainable mobility, which means that travel activities are no longer only evaluated according to economic but also ecological aspects. This allows to implement measures that increase the appeal of rail travel, such as covering the costs of sleeper cars and 1st class tickets (both only in justified cases) as well as a regulation for the assumption of costs for employees privately owning a Klimaticket (or other transport passes). These changes are a good first step to incentivise sustainable travel. The wissBR therefore considers these changes to be extremely positive. Another new measure is the restriction of cost coverage for destinations that can be reached by public transportation within five hours. In this case, flight costs will no longer be reimbursed. However, there may still be approved exceptions, for example due to time restrictions or care responsibilities. The Academic Staff Council advises employees to clarify in advance with the Travel Expense Division whether a destination can be reached within the five-hour time limit and what proof may need to be provided.

In addition to the introduction of these new billing rules, the process for handling conference trips and business trips is also being transitioned to SAP. With regard to business trips, however, these changes still require a corresponding amendment to the operational agreement. This new wording (together with the new billing regulations described above) is currently still being drafted. However, it is already possible to use SAP to apply for and settle business trips. Should any problems or questions arise, please contact us at wiss.betriebsrat@wu.ac.at. The transition to SAP of conference travels, which is more frequently used by academic staff, will only take place in the coming months. In both cases (business trips and conference trips), the usual process (on paper) is therefore still possible (business trip) or even necessary (conference trip).More information can be found here.

C0₂-neutral WU

Overall, WU has set itself the goal of becoming climate-neutral in the 2025-2027 performance agreement period. This would be well ahead of the target set out in the Austrian University Development Plan, which envisages this for all universities by 2035.

In order to achieve this goal of climate neutrality, WU is examining and planning possible improvements to the buildings on campus. Due to the new building fabric, the campus already has a very good CO₂ balance. Nevertheless, the retrofitting of the buildings with photovoltaics, for example, was examined. Due to a calculated low coverage of the electricity demand when equipping the most suitable roof areas, this has not yet been implemented. However, a new assessment is currently underway. Thereafter, the installation of photovoltaics in certain areas of the roof surfaces is planned – depending on budget constraints.

A permanent temperature reduction in the buildings, as was implemented at WU in the winter of 2022/23 due to the rise in energy prices, is currently not being considered as a sustainability measure. In the current winter, WU has reverted to the normal setting of 22 degrees, as this enables the most efficient operation of the heating system. Due to the past temperature reduction, however, oversteering was detected and fixed in some areas, which should now lead to significant energy savings.

As a further sustainability measure, WU has started to calculate its CO₂ emissions (including the energy of the campus buildings, the use of materials and the everyday and business mobility of employees) structurally with the help of a balancing tool. Based on these figures, more precise measures to reduce CO₂ emissions can be taken in the future. Given the first preliminary results, WU is planning to switch to CO₂-neutral green electricity in 2025, for example. After this switch, employees' everyday mobility and business travel will be the main factors of WU's CO₂ emissions.

The next step, therefore, is to incentivise a more sustainable behaviour of everyday mobility, for example by implementing employees' requests for job bicycles and job tickets. The Academic Staff Council will continue to play an active role in discussions on this topic at WU and have direct talks with the Rector's Council on how to improve WU’s sustainability. WU employees who want to become active themselves can join the Green Buddies, a group of WU students and employees who are committed to more sustainability and environmental protection on campus.

^01.02.2024

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