SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT
TRAVEL STRATEGY
2011-2016
1.
THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT TRAVEL STRATEGY
The Scottish Government’s Travel Strategy is key to enabling the organisation to meet its
ambitious emissions targets. It encompasses staff behaviour changes and organisational
policy changes. Our baseline highlights that a third of our emissions is generated by business
travel and this Travel Strategy aims to address this.
This document replaces the previous Travel Plan, published in 2007 and will be reviewed in 5
years.
This Strategy will be accompanied by an annual action plan which will set out the steps we
will put in place to achieve our targets. We will also provide an annual update on the
progress we have made.
2.
OUR ASPIRATIONS
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges to life. It threatens human life through its
impacts on water level, crops, disease and fresh water supplies. The world has to address
this, urgently, and Scotland must be sufficiently enlightened to take a global lead.
We face other increasing environmental pressures, too, such as constantly rising levels of
consumption and ever greater competition for natural resources - fossil fuels, air, timber,
water and land - all of which are already under pressure. That position cannot continue: as a
nation we need to reduce our impact on both a local and global and environmental scale.
This challenge is recognised in the Scottish Government National Outcomes. The following
outcome is key to the Travel Strategy and its effectiveness:
‘we will reduce our global and local environmental impact of our consumption
and production’
The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 creates a long-term framework that will:
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introduce a statutory target to reduce Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions by 80
per cent by 2050
establish an interim target of 42 per cent emissions reductions by 2020;
include a power to vary the interim target subject to expert advice from the
Committee on Climate Change
establish a series of annual targets to drive action; and
include emissions from international aviation and international shipping.
This framework will help build a sustainable future for Scotland. It will contribute to the
country's sustainable economic growth by moving the public and private sectors towards a
low carbon economy.
The Scottish Government is committed to leading by example and the climate change targets
for Scotland are reflected in our targets for our own estate.
The previous Scottish Government’s Travel Plan 2007 targets were:
Business
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to reduce business travel related emissions by 20% between 2005/06 and 2010/11;
to reduce business travel related emissions by 40% by 2019/20 against 2005/06 levels;
to increase the share of more sustainable travel practices by 10% among staff
travelling on business by the 2009 survey.
Staff
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to reduce single occupancy car levels by commuting staff by 5% by the 2009 survey;
to set aside a minimum of 10% of car park spaces for more sustainable forms of
transport including car-sharing and low emission vehicles by 2009;
to increase the share of more sustainable travel practices by 10% for the commute to
work by the 2009 survey.
It is anticipated that the UK Spending Review will lead to significant reductions in the
Scottish Government's budget over the coming years. It will be essential to manage the
decreasing budgets we have to ensure that our staff can continue to provide the same service
in the most energy and financially efficient way possible.
Our Carbon Management Plan (CMP) was published in May 2009. It sets out key activities
that will enable us to reduce our overall carbon emissions and meet our targets. It captures
our baseline carbon emissions and includes projects, both technical and strategic that will
collectively work towards our long term carbon emissions reduction target of 80% by 2050.
Completion of the baseline exercise highlighted the following breakdown:
Baseline Outputs
4%
34%
62%
Buildings
3.
Transport
Waste & water
THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT AS AN ORGANISATION
Each year we report our emissions from our business travel through the Annual
Environmental Report. As an organisation business travel is essential to allow Government
to carry out its business across Scotland.
Our baseline year for business travel emissions is currently 2005/06 which was 3245 tonnes
of CO². On 1 April 2009 Marine Scotland (formerly Fisheries Research Services and
Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency) formed a new directorate in the core Scottish
Government. As well as a diverse range of properties, Marine Scotland’s operations include
an air and sea fleet which has had a significant impact on the amount of emissions
attributable to the Scottish Government’s corporate activities. For the purposes of this
Strategy we are focussing on the general business travel emissions. Fleet emissions which
includes the statutory travel of Marine Scotland will be looked at separately.
4.
TRAVEL PLANS
A Travel Plan is a general term for a package of measures tailored to the needs of individual
sites. These are aimed at promoting more sustainable travel choices and reducing reliance on
the car. Travel Plans help reduce the impact of travel on the environment; they can
encourage greater levels of physical activity; and they also make good business sense. They
can cut congestion around a location, improve neighbourhood relations and save money on
business travel. A Travel Plan can also help attract staff to sites which would otherwise be
difficult to access.
5.
TRAVEL HIERARCHY
The travel hierarchy upon which this Travel Strategy is based is provided below:
• no travel – can a telephone call, video conference or e-mail deliver the same outcome;
• walking – the healthiest and cheapest form of transport, negligible carbon emissions
and flexibility, viable for journeys up to 2 km;
• cycling – a healthy and cheap form of transport, negligible carbon emissions, reliable
and flexible for journeys up of 5 km;
• bus / rail – for essential medium to long journeys, rail travel is the best option, while
buses are good for local journeys;
• taxi – whilst necessary for some trips shared trips should be offered where possible;
• private car – a car is necessary for some journeys and a hire car will be the first
choice. We promote the use of hire cars over employees’ own vehicles as there are
likely cost and carbon savings, and reduced health and safety risks; and
• air travel – high emissions per journey and the last resort for travel within the UK.
Meeting stakeholders, partners and colleagues is a vital part of how the Government carries
out its duties and travel still remains necessary in support of this. It still remains important
that travel if it is essential is planned to maximise your time and the time of those you are
proposing to invite to the meeting.
6.
TARGETS
Target 1 – to reduce business related travel emissions by 25% between 2005/06 and
2016/17;
Target 2 – to reduce business related travel emissions by 42% by 2019/20 against
2005/06 levels. (aligning our target with the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009).
Target 3 – to increase the share of more sustainable travel practices to 35% by
2014/15 from a baseline year of 2005/06.
Target 4 – establish a baseline for the commute to work [probably 2010/11] with a
view to establishing carbon targets for the commute to work to be achieved by
2014/15 taking into consideration business need, location and staff work life balance.
7.
IMPLEMENTATION
Associated with this document is a 12 month rolling action plan which will ensure we can
make strong headway in meeting the targets. This plan will be updated regularly to allow us
to provide evidence on our progress.