Free shuttle bus services between Monash campuses leads to massive reduction in the university's carbon

Free shuttle bus services between Monash campuses led to a massive reduction in the university's carbon emissions over the past 12 months, according to statistics just released.

The calculations were based on the total emissions the bus passengers would have built up if each had used a car for the same journey.

Paul Barton, Director of the Office of Environmental Sustainability, who produced the figures, said: “ My main message  is ‘Use It’. It makes a difference.”

Of the latest figures Paul  said: “This is a re-enforcement that the use of alternative transport can make a big difference in reducing carbon emissions and, therefore, have an affect on climate change.  “I would encourage all students and staff to think about these inter campus bus services as a way of getting around the Monash network and help reduce our carbon footprint.”

The statistics show that the buses would have emitted 208 tonnes of carbon from all the trips they took during the period.  If each person who took the bus had used a car for the journey the total emissions would have been 1121 tonnes - a difference of 912 tonnes.  The services currently run between Clayton and Caulfield, Clayton and Berwick and Clayton and Peninsula.

In the first Semester this year the buses carried a total of 115,448 passengers with the greatest numbers travelling between Clayton and Caulfield.  The two services carried 49,360 and 48,970 respectively.
The Peninsula link carried a total of 10,498 while the service to and from Berwick logged 6,620 passengers.

The Office of Environmental Sustainability is currently investigating the use of solar powered buses for some of the services. Paul Barton said: “This, of course, would put our carbon emissions on the buses to nil which would be an even greater step in reducing our footprint.