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Professor Minna Halme and doctoral researcher Hanne Savolainen, both from the Department of Management Studies at the School of Business, travelled to Copenhagen at the end of July for the annual conference of the management subject, Academy of Management (AoM). They decided to travel to their destination in a way other than flying to minimise carbon emissions from travel. 

Hanne Savolainen says that as soon as she heard that AoM was being held in Copenhagen, she knew she wanted to attend and travel there by land. ‘AoM was held in Europe for the first time and I also participated in the conference for the first time. I try to reduce air travel and wanted to experience travelling by land. My inspiration for travelling by land has been my colleague at the Department of Management Studies Leni Grünbaum, who travelled by land on her previous trip to the Copenhagen conference in 2023.’

Minna Halme says that travelling by land has been on her mind for a long time already, because she thinks about sustainable solutions in her life in general. ‘Very often the flying option has been so easy and has become a routine. If the travel team also supported travel by trains and ships in the same way as flying, the threshold for travelling by land would be lower. Travel time has not felt like a problem, because one can work while travelling.’

Arriving there felt harmonious

Hanne first travelled with her family and friends by ship from Helsinki to Stockholm. ‘When the rest of the family cruised back to Finland, I myself boarded a train in Stockholm heading to Malmö. In Malmö, I switched to a local train that took me to the Danish side. The return journey followed the same route in the opposite direction, but instead of my family, I was initially accompanied by an American professor who attended the same conference, with whom I continued discussing the conference’s offerings.’ 

Hanne shares the same thoughts as Minna. ‘The experience was absolutely amazing and I plan to continue travelling by land in the future. I never missed the cramped seats of the airplane and I was able to make use of travel time in the train for work. A special recommendation for the quiet carriages of Swedish express trains, where the seats were very spacious and the ticket inspection was done without disturbing the passengers.’

Support for land travel would be good to have

Minna bought herself a better cabin on the ferry. ‘I wouldn't be able to sleep under the engine room. Of course, I had to pay for this myself as the cabin was above what Aalto's travel rules would have permitted. Daily allowances at Aalto are only paid starting from 24 hours before the conference begins, which should also be updated to account for the time spent travelling by land. It wasn't a problem for me at this stage of my career, but I understand if many choose to fly because of these issues.’

‘It would be great if Aalto's travel team could make train and ferry travel suggestions and, as I just mentioned, the daily allowance for land travel needs to be sorted out as well. No one should be penalised for travelling by land. We need structures that support sustainable choices instead of hindering them,’ says Minna.

Calculating costs and emissions

Hanne remembers that train tickets from Stockholm to Copenhagen and back cost a total of 175 euros, and she budgeted a good 300 euros for ferry tickets.

‘Of course, when booking the trips, I thought about how much cheaper and faster I could get there by flying, but in reality, I never considered flying at any point. I also promised in my grant application that I would travel by land (thanks to the Foundation for Economic Education for the travel grant), but I don't know if it affected the grant decision.’

Minna had not made similar calculations but considers Hanne's calculations very good. ‘And we certainly know with Hanne that ships also produce emissions, but we think it is slightly less burdensome than flying. I hope that our good experiences of travelling by land will encourage updates to processes related to travelling at Aalto and then when they are made, I hope that more people at Aalto would choose a greener way to travel.’

Flying a major source of carbon emissions at Aalto

The senior sustainability advisor at the School of Business, Paula Schönach states that in 2024 the faculty and staff at the School of Business made a total of 364 flights. ‘This amounted to approximately 1.7 million kilometers, which corresponds to flying around the world 43 times.’

‘The School of Business is committed to sustainability work, one focus of which is reducing carbon emissions from flying. In addition to reducing the need for travel, low-carbon travel choices (railways, roads, waterways) are part of this work. Avoiding flying is not always possible but we are developing different methods and incentives to reduce the carbon emissions caused by flying. Travelling accounts for 17% of Aalto University's carbon footprint, which is why it is a significant area in Aalto's climate work,’ says Paula Schönach.