1. UCLA Business-Related Air Travel Carbon Mitigation
2018 – 2020 Pilot Program
Graphic source: low carbon champions.org

2. Air Travel as Part of UC Climate Commitments
The University recognizes the challenges of climate change and has made commitments to reduce emissions:
Carbon neutrality by 2025 for Scopes 1 & 2 (stationary sources and vehicle fleet)
Mobile sources—Scope 3—while not yet included for 2025, there is heavy focus on reducing these emissions
How do we continue to pursue our mission while honoring our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
UC Sustainable Practices Policy Procedures state:
“The University will pursue strategic programs and data collection to offset greenhouse gas emissions related to business-related campus air travel”
Recognizing the UC commitment to reducing or offsetting air travel greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, UCLA launched its Air Travel Mitigation Pilot Program on January 1, 2018
The UC Sustainable Practices Policy encourages strategic programs to offset greenhouse gas emissions from business-related campus air travel.
This January UCLA launched a three year Air Travel Mitigation Pilot Program, becoming one of the first university campuses in the nation to reduce the impact of greenhouse gas emissions by assessing a carbon mitigation fee for business-related flights.

3. Why Offset or Mitigate Air Travel Emissions?
Air travel by faculty and staff is necessary for the University to pursue and fulfill its mission and has no viable alternative for many trips
Air travel GHG emissions are significant, accounting for 5% of the total at UCLA (greater than emissions from its vehicle fleet!)
The campus recognized that while air travel by faculty and staff is necessary in pursuit of the university’s mission, and often has no viable alternative, the greenhouse gas emissions from such travel are significant.
(2014)
Source: Presidio Study/ACUPCC Reporting System

4. Move to Action
Carbon offsets are not preferred for GHG emissions reduction
But for air travel, they do make sense

5. Who at UCLA Is Doing the Flying?
Miles flown in 2017
While faculty are but one-sixth of the UCLA workforce, they fly much more per capita than staff
As might be expected, faculty do a disproportionate amount of the flying attending and presenting academic papers at conferences and colloquia and collaborating with colleagues at other institutions. However, as faculty account for only 1/6 of the UCLA workforce, the total miles flown is greater for staff.

6. How Substantial are UCLA’s Business-Related Air Travel GHG Emissions?
Miles flown per year
GHG MT emitted per year*
2007 Miles Flown: 56,837,237
2017 Miles Flown: 88,846,150
2007 GHG emissions: 19,271 MT
2017 GHG emissions: 30,236 MT
UCLA business-related air travel increased by more than 33% over the last decade, reaching over 88 million miles flown in 2017 and accounting for more than 30,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
* Calculation via the Campus Carbon Calculator

7. Setting Up the Program
Framework developed with assistance from Presidio Graduate School MBA team
Peer Review Lessons Learned
Voluntary Programs garner few offsets
Federal contracts and grants cannot be charged for air travel offsets
To operationalize, keep it simple
To develop recommendations for a pilot program to offset or mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions from business air travel, in 2014, UCLA Transportation worked with staff at the Office of the President and an interested team of graduate students from the Presidio School.
In developing the framework for a pilot program, a peer review of other institutions’ air travel offset programs showed that voluntary programs yielded little participation, that federal contract and grant guidelines preclude offset fees for air travel charged to such funds, and that it was best to keep it simple to get such a program launched. .

8. Process Considerations
“Fee Type” options and selection
UCLA process for airline ticket purchases & reimbursement
How to capture trip information
Carbon offset information gathering
What kinds are there? What is the fee per metric ton?

9. Fee Options Considered
Fee Type
Pros and/or Cons
Fee Based on Ticket Price
Little relationship to GHGs emitted
Fee Based on Miles Flown
Difficult to implement and precision does not equal accuracy
Flat Fee per Trip
Easy to implement; issues of equity
Tiered Flat Fee per Trip
Easy to implement, addresses equity issues
While UCLA looked at options for assessing fees based on various criteria, we ultimately settled on a tiered flat fee per trip as both easy to implement and equitable.

10. How to Determine Fees Needed: Forecasting UCLA Flight Volume
Total Flights
Domestic Flights
International Flights

11. Forecasting UCLA Flight Emissions
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Emissions
22,384
23,564
30,236
32,060
33,884
35,708
Miles
70,099,592
75,694,213
88,846,150
95,095,003
101,343,856
107,592,708
Total Flights*
70,370
70,894
78,115
80,697
83,278
85,860
Domestic Flights
61,678
68,043
70,165
72,286
74,408
International Flights
8,692
9,216
10,072
10,532
10,992
11,452
Presidio Team
* Not r/t and includes UCLA Athletics

12. Carbon Pricing Demand Forecasting
California Energy Commission Projections:
Preliminary 2017 IEPR Carbon Price Projections 1
2017
2018
2019
2020
Carbon Price (Nominal$/metric ton CO2E)
Low Price (High Consumption Scenario)2
13.68
14.73
15.88
17.07
Mid Price (Mid Consumption Scenario)
13.44
15.27
17.35
19.71
High Price (Low Consumption Scenario)
13.66
16.00
18.76
21.98
Tier 1 APCR / Proposed post-2020 APCR
46.34
48.69
51.150
53.73
CPI: Urban Consumer - All Items, (Index, 2015)
103.68
106.49
109.42
112.19
CPI Annual Rate of Change
2.46%
2.71%
2.75%
2.53%
Presidio Team
1 Integrated Energy Policy Report, CA Energy Commission
2 Price increases in calendar years subsequent to 2016 will be equal to the offer price for each tier from the previous calendar year increased by five percent plus the rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers.

13. Fee Adds Nominal Amount to Total Trip Cost
# of Flight Itineraries
Total Revenue
Fee per Itinerary
Domestic ~29,000
Domestic ~$261,000 $9
The resultant tiered fees charged per trip itinerary for domestic and international trips will add only nominal amounts to the total trip cost. Charging only non-contract & grant accounts reduces the amount we expect to collect in 2018 to approximately $242,000.
International ~5,000
International ~$125,000
$25
~$386,000
~34,000 Round Trips
Reduce amount by contract & grant-funded travel (~25%)
- $96,000
~ $290,000

14. UCLA Business Air Travel – How Are Flight Reservations Made?
Source of flights flown per year
California - $35,000
CONNEXXUS Travel System –
No University-wide mandate to use system
Most faculty and some staff use other tools to book flights
Express –
The electronic reimbursement system
Domestic
$165,000
* The UC Travel Program with portal and negotiated rates for booking flights, hotel rooms, etc. Encouraged to use but not mandatory

15. Business Air Travel by Destination
Percent by Trip Type
California - $35,000
Express reimbursement system already splits domestic and international flights
Domestic
$165,000

16. How Are Fees Be Collected?
(Via “Express”)
Since all air travel reimbursements for the UCLA campus go through the Financial Services “Express” system it was determined that the best and easiest method for implementation would be to assess a fee to the traveler’s department at the point of reimbursement. ((Charged to the account being charged for the flight.)) *
*To non-contract/grant accounts

17. Local Or Verified Offsets
From Cornell University

18. How Will the Fund be Utilized and Managed?
Local Projects
Oversight
Sustainability Office to oversee fund
Committee will recommend projects based on review of applications
Executive Sustainability Committee decides
Energy Efficiency
Greening
Renewable Energy
The air travel mitigation pilot program will not entail purchase of verifiable offsets as there was strong feeling on the campus that funds collected should be utilized locally for on-campus projects that provide measurable reductions in GHG emissions, most likely energy efficiency or renewable energy projects.
A committee will screen applications at the close of each full year of the three-year pilot program and recommend to the Executive Sustainability Committee which projects to fund.

19. Timeline Air Travel Offset Feasibility Study
Consultation w/Deans & Administrative Departments
“Express” System Programming
Pilot Initiation
Sustainability Committee
From initial feasibility to launch took approximately four years, including consultation with campus stakeholders. The program will be evaluated during the final year of the pilot.
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Program Development
Pilot Period

20. Q&A
Questions, comments…?