Air Travel Emissions Reduction Program
Aiming to reduce University flight emissions by 10% by 2025

Carbon neutral by 2025
The University of Melbourne aspires to demonstrate climate leadership and achieve Climate Active Carbon Neutral certification by 2025. Staff air travel is a key source of the University’s greenhouse gas emissions, and the University has set a target to reduce emissions in this area by 10% on 2019 levels by 2025. Making a significant change means redefining how we can be leaders in the tertiary education sector by finding innovative ways to be globally connected.
Carbon emissions
Did you know that in 2023, flights taken for University business (booked through Unitravel) generated an estimated 33,556 tonnes of carbon emissions, over a distance of 124 million passenger kilometres? Per full-time equivalent (FTE) staff member, that is almost 12,000 km and over 3 tonnes of carbon emissions for 2023.
Air travel is a significant contributor to the University’s greenhouse gas emissions. To address this, in the Sustainability Plan 2030, the University has committed to:
- Reducing air travel emissions by 10% on 2019 levels by 2025
- Becoming Climate Active Carbon Neutral certified by 2025
- Achieving climate positive status by 2030


How we're tracking
The University’s emissions from business air travel approximately doubled from 2022 to 2023, to 33,556 tCO2e. This increase in reported emissions is due to the combined effect of a return to pre-pandemic travel patterns; and an increase in Climate Active emission factors, which are outside the University’s control. All business air travel emissions were offset with purchased carbon offset credits.
UoM Air Travel Emissions
2016-2023
Before you book your flight
Familiarise yourself with the University's Employee Travel Policy and follow the tips below to help minimise your air travel emissions.




Carbon selector tool
The University has partnered with its travel booking platform, UniTravel, to develop a ‘carbon selector’ tool, allowing individual travellers to achieve significant reduction in carbon emissions by selecting lower emissions flights.
Through the improvements to the UniTravel platform, travellers can now view emissions breakdowns on every flight. Flights can also be sorted by emissions (low to high), so every traveller can now have a better understanding of the contribution their chosen flight has on emissions.
How to use the carbon selector tool
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UniTravel booking interface
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Carbon emissions icons
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Sort by emissions
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Filter and cap emissions