Travel Decision Tools
ETH Zurich offers various tools to make the right choice regarding mobility for business travel. When booking flights, the advance determination of the trip's greenhouse gas emissions is of particular importance.
In the case of air travel, assessing the greenhouse gas emissions of the trip in advance and weighing them against other types of mobility or virtual participation in conferences and work meetings is particularly important. The rule is: avoid and reduce first, and only then offset unavoidable emissions.
Flight Decision Tree
The Download ETH Zurich Flight Decision Tree (PDF, 18.1 MB) was developed in the context of the ETH Air Travel Project. It supports people in a playful way in deciding whether and how they would like to participate in an international event or conference and how they can organize their journey there.
Train or plane within Europe
According to the ETH Zurich Regulations Concerning Business Expenses, business trips that can be reached by train or bus in under 8 hours travel time should be made by these means of transportation whenever possible. The map of Europe with relevant destinations provides a quick overview and helps with travel planning:
Virtual and hybrid communication
The coronavirus pandemic has shown that virtual and hybrid forms of conferences and work meetings can be productive and stimulating and offer a real alternative to emission-generating brief stays. For larger events, ETH Zurich's video conferencing service (Multimedia Technologies; MMT) operates video conferencing rooms at the Zentrum (HG, LEE) and Hönggerberg (HCI, HIT) locations. In addition, advice on local videoconferencing installation in departments and institutes as well as on standard equipment for meeting rooms of various sizes can be requested.
Detailed information on services, infrastructure, application scenarios and room equipment can be found on the website of ETH Zurich's video conferencing service.
Booking rail and air travel via Kuster Reisen
ETH Zurich's travel department recommends booking international rail and air travel through protected page ETH's partner travel agency Kuster Reisen. The travel consultants at Kuster Reisen are available by phone, email or online to book all travel.
The advantages of booking through Kuster Reisen are:
- Exclusive Federal special fares for travel by ETH members.
- In the event of cancellation/change of reservations, ETH's travel department will provide assistance.
- Kuster Reisen is a member of the "Guarantee Fund of the Swiss Travel Industry". In case of insolvency of a foreign supplier, the refund of paid but not yet received services is guaranteed.
Environmental footprint
Mobility and air travel are among the major drivers of high greenhouse gas emissions in Switzerland. A good knowledge of the specific greenhouse gas emissions caused by work-related mobility (commuting, business travel) helps you make decisions about your own mobility use.
You can monitor and selectively calculate your emissions caused by mobility and especially by air travel through this selection of footprint calculators from external providers:
- external page Swiss Climate Challenge mobility app (automated monitoring).
- external page atmosfair flight emissions calculator
- external page myclimate footprint calculator (incl. flight)
- external page WWF footprint calculator (incl. flight; in German)