Green Gown Awards 2016 – Best Newcomer – University of Limerick – Highly Commended

UL Smarter Travel

This project aims to open people’s eyes to alternatives to single-occupancy driving. The University of Limerick (UL) Smarter Travel has implemented a range of measures to encourage staff and students of the University to use sustainable travel modes, such as walking, cycling, taking the bus and car-sharing, for daily commutes. UL has invested in hard measures such as physical infrastructure and travel policies and in soft measures such as behaviour change strategies and has seen a shift from car-based travel to more sustainable forms of travel over the period 2011 to 2015.

UL was named Smarter Travel Campus of the Year, Cycling Campus of the Year, Student Union of the Year and Sustainable Champions of the Year and also won the Road Safety Authority Leading Lights Award for work done to promote road safety.

UL was also awarded the Green Flag by An Taisce’s Green-Campus programme on behalf of the Foundation for Environmental Education.

Top 3 learnings

1 Soft measures are harder to implement than hard measures!

2 The quotation “If you build it, they will come” is not enough! An on-going promotional behavioural change campaign is necessary to encourage people to consider alternative to single-occupancy driving

3 People like a challenge; we have learnt that challenging groups to commit to travelling sustainably can change behaviours.

CO2t Savings: 388  
Actual/Estimated: Estimated
No. of yrs: 4
 

Videos

• UL Smarter Travel (click to hide)