The IRMP charter for sustainable development (link) has the following purposes:
- Reduce the carbon footprint caused by professional travel of IRMP members
- Support sustainable development projects inside IRMP
The charter is completed by an IRMP sustainable development fund, for which the main effect is the following:
Any travel by bus, train or car-sharing (with at least 3 people in the car, driver included), will be funded up to 100€ per trip (200€ for a round trip). This covers first class tickets, car rentals and accomodation when stopping for the night.
For more details, see the in practice page.
Why a sustainable development charter?
Our research activities have an effect on the climate and the general environment. In this context, the IRMP whishes to promote any workplace initiative that would allow members to improve their effect on the environment.
In particular, CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions represent an important contribution to this effect. In 2017, the carbon footprint of UCLouvain was 68.5 ktons CO2 equivalent, 54% of which related to mobility and 35% to buildings energetical needs [1].
The contribution of IRMP members' activities in this footprint come from commuting and plane travel. The latter alone represents 80% of the carbon footprint related to professional travel [2]. A Brussels – New-York flight emits more than 1.9 ton of CO2 equivalent per traveler [3] while the average annual footprint in Belgium is 9 tons. One of the main goals of the charter is to help and encourage members to switch to low-emission transportation, in particular by avoiding travelling by plane as much as possible.
[1] See https://uclouvain.be/fr/decouvrir/universite-transition/bilan-carbone-evaluer-pourmieux-agir.html, as well as Bilan Carbone de l'UCLouvain : méthodologie, résultats et plan d'action (Meyers Camille 2019).
[2] See https://uclouvain.be/fr/decouvrir/universite-transition/mobilite-internationale.html and the master thesis above.
[3] Short flights such as Brussels – London, Brussels – Berlin ou Brussels – Geneva emit approximatively 0.3 tons eq. CO2 per traveller. Source :https://co2.myclimate.org/fr/flight_calculators/new (September 2022)