Everyday practices

IOA is a big international department that houses many employees, students, researchers and guests. This means that a lot of events take place and that a lot of personnel travel to and from the department. Travel and consumption are two areas where IOA has taken a sustainable stand.

Guiding principles

IOA has an official sustainability policy that centers around three guiding principles:

1. The travel distance/CO2 footprint should be taken into consideration when decisions

are made about conference participation, opponents for PhD projects etc.

2. IOA works to replace air travel with less climate-damaging forms of transportation

3. IOA will choose the most environmentally friendly consumption

In order to actually implement these principles, IOA has initiated concrete actions. For instance, we make sure that technological infrastructure is up and running so one can e.g. stream a PhD defense from a distance instead of having to travel to the department.  We’re also pragmatic in our assessments and e.g. avoid flying in visitors who are only here for one event. In relation to consumption, at all IOA events where food is being offered, it is solely vegetarian solutions that’s provided. Regular milk is available for coffee, but it is a fact that the oat-solution is the most popular choice at IOA!

Our sustainability policy falls in line with the overall direction of CBS’s campus sustainability strategy, but at IOA our travel policy is more restricted than other places. This is an active decision we’ve made.

The IOA Sustainability Policy 2019 can be found here.