New climate protection fund and new rules for business trips
2022-10-04
Dear Colleagues,
Although Leuphana has been a climate-neutral university since 2014, this does not mean that we cannot and must not make further efforts to protect the climate. The need to make further contributions has not only been made clear to us by the current summer with heat, drought, drought and forest fires.
Business trips are an important part of academic work for the purpose of scientific exchange, initiating and maintaining collaborations, carrying out scientific projects and as a basis for scientific creativity, inspiration and trusting relationships. However, business trips are also a possible starting point for strengthening our climate protection efforts. As part of a bundle of further measures, the Presidential Board, after extensive consultation in the Senate Commission on Sustainability, has therefore decided on changed rules for business travel at Leuphana and the introduction of a new climate protection fund. With the newly adopted measures, the university aims to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the use of airplanes and cars for business travel or to compensate for them via a climate protection fund.
Specifically, the following regulations apply as of October 1, 2022:
1) Business trips should be replaced by digital formats at Leuphana in the future whenever possible without restrictions on content. Business trips that cannot be replaced by digital formats should be made by public transport (train, bus) whenever possible. Business travel by air should be avoided whenever possible, especially to destinations that
- are below a distance of 500 km, or
- can be reached within 6 hours by other means of public transport, or
- create a time saving of less than 3 hours in the case of airplane use compared to other means of public transport.
Costs incurred by the use of public transport or necessary overnight stays in hotels when business trips are carried out in an environmentally compatible manner shall be reimbursed insofar as they are in reasonable proportion to the objectives of environmental compatibility and sustainability and meet the requirements of travel expense law.
2) For business trips for which the use of a car or airplane is unavoidable, the resulting CO2 emissions are compensated via an internal climate protection fund of Leuphana. The corresponding business trips are automatically and obligatorily charged with financial costs for the compensation of CO2 emissions at the expense of the respective cost center. The payment is made automatically with the travel expense report and is financed from the current budget of the respective department. Payment from third-party funds is only permitted in accordance with the approval of the third-party funder, i.e. if the third-party funder does not permit compensation, the business trips financed from third-party funds are carried out without compensation.
3) From the internal climate protection fund, measures for climate protection are financed, planned and implemented by Leuphana University Lüneburg, preferably on the campus of Leuphana University Lüneburg (e.g. renovation of windows). Subject to budgetary permissibility, the climate protection funds can also be used to finance projects outside the campus that effectively remove CO2 from the atmosphere (investment in CO2 sinks, such as fens and near-natural forests), in particular scientific projects that involve renaturation measures. The Presidential Board decides on project approvals in consultation with the Building Management and the Sustainability Officer. Members of the university can submit proposals for the use of funds via the Sustainability Officer. Measures already planned from other funds should not be financed from the climate protection fund.
4) For the use of a car, an average emission of 200 grams of CO2 per kilometer driven is assumed and calculated using the CO2 price set by the German government (currently 25 euros per ton of CO2, corresponding to 0.005 EUR per km).
5) For the use of an aircraft, in order to simplify administrative procedures, a flat rate is calculated based on the average CO2 emissions of flights and the CO2 price set by the federal government:
- for continental flights: currently 25 euros for a return flight,
- for intercontinental flights: currently 100 euros for a return flight.
6) The climate protection fund will be set up for an initial period of five years and evaluated before the end of this period.
We hope that these regulations will both help to avoid unnecessary business travel and contribute to the implementation of active climate protection measures on campus - e.g. faster renovation of the windows and facades of the older buildings on campus.
In the future, you will also find the regulations on the intranet at www.leuphana.de/intranet/leitlinien-fuer-den-arbeitsplatz/ordnungen-und-richtlinien-der-universitaet or www.leuphana.de/fileadmin/user_upload/INTRANET/Richtlinien/220713_Richtlinie_Klimaschutzfonds_final_beschlossen.pdf
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Sustainability Officer, Irmhild Brüggen (irmhild.brueggen@leuphana.de), and the Head of Finance, Sascha Ludenia (sascha.ludenia@leuphana.de).
With kind regards,
Christian Brei
Executive Vice President
Irmhild Brüggen
Representative for Sustainability
Sascha Ludenia
Head of Finances