Erasmus Sustainable Mobility

The Erasmus program is one of the most successful European initiatives granting students valuable learning and life experiences. In its 2021-2027 period, the program is expected to move 10 million European students. These students, however, will have significantly larger carbon footprints during their stay abroad than when studying back at home. On the other hand, most international students will make intensive use of public transportation, bike sharing systems (BSS) or other sustainable travel options in their day-to-day activities during their stays, offsetting some of their carbon emissions. However, little is known about this balance between sustainable everyday travel and more frequent and carbon-intensive leisure travel.
This project will recruit several international Erasmus students incoming to the participating ECIU universities. We will estimate students' carbon footprints and use study and control groups to test a variety of information and incentive-based interventions. At the end of their stay, we will analyse whether the intervention groups had lower emissions than the control group and whether having access to information or sustainable mobility options is a significant contributor to lower carbon budgets among Erasmus students.www