Commuter Students: Understanding Their Travel Behavior and Reducing Their Environmental Impact

Universities are central to tackling climate change. However, while universities can rightly claim to be leading the fight against climate change through their education, engagement, and research activities, evidence suggests that we are not exemplifying the change that we wish to see. The design of our learning environments—our facilities, resources, pedagogies, policies, and processes—means that our operations are having a substantial environmental impact, locally and globally. This chapter focuses on reducing carbon emissions from a hitherto under-recognized activity, namely, the student commute to learning. The chapter reviews existing knowledge regarding the impact of the student commute to learning on the carbon footprint of higher education institutions (HEIs) and finds that addressing this activity is central to reducing the impact of higher education on climate change. Having established a need to reduce emissions from the student commute to learning, the chapter turns to consider how to reduce emissions. Drawing on evidence from travel behavior science, the chapter considers the ability and willingness of students to change their travel behavior and presents a framework to guide university action in tackling the climate impact of the student commute to learning. The chapter concludes that changes to HEI operations that enable students to reduce their travel may be more effective in reducing carbon emissions from the student commute to learning than efforts to persuade students to remode, reroute, or retime their journeys.