This event is part of the European project U-MOB LIFE or ‘European Network for Sustainable Mobility at University’ and aims to reduce CO2 emissions in European university campuses.

The 1st European Conference on Sustainable Mobility at Universities will take place from the 8^th to the 10^th of March 2017 at the Bellaterra Campus of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). This will be the first European platform where universities from different European countries and other territories will have the opportunity to share their needs, challenges and different solutions in the field of accessibility and sustainable mobility.

A space to share knowledge about sustainable mobility

More than 150 people are invited to come to this international conference: university mobility managers, academics, public officials of urban mobility, entrepreneurs and companies of the sector, NGOs, representatives of civil society and students.

The first part of the meeting will focus on understanding the theoretical approaches to sustainable mobility that universities, as territorial and social actors, are implementing. Current and future trends in mobility management will be discussed, considering the application of green economy theories to transportation. Finally, speakers will illustrate how the governance of universities and territories can shape and condition sustainable mobility management at different scales.

The conference will also bring together the different experiences of participating universities and territories. The main arguments that will be presented are related to the development of new technologies and the latest progresses in the field of sustainable mobility: urban design, parking management aimed at reducing car use, the role of alternative energy, current and future use of bicycles in schools or CO2 compensation strategies. In addition, the territorial challenges in terms of sustainable mobility will be discussed by representatives of Spanish, Italian, Californian or Colombian universities.

The U-MOB LIFE European project

This conference is part of the European project U-MOB LIFE, which began in 2016 and will last for five years – until June 2021. It belongs to the LIFE Programme, the European Union’s financial instrument of support for nature and climate preservation and environmental action projects throughout the EU.

The consortium is formed by: NOVOTEC Consultores, consultancy specialized in sustainable mobility and project leader; Fundación Equipo Humano, specialized in training and communication; and the following universities: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR), Politechnika Krakowska (PK) and Università degli Studi di Bergamo (UNIBG).

A European Network of Universities for Sustainable Mobility

European university campuses are spaces where thousands of people travel everyday using private vehicles and generating important emissions of pollutants into the atmosphere. The project wants to favour the use of public transportation rather than the private one and of active means of transport (walking and the use of the bicycle), thus reducing the impact of traffic caused by vehicles around the cities.

U-MOB LIFE aims at creating a European Network of Universities for Sustainable Mobility; at informing, communicating and raising awareness among the university community about the positive impact of sustainable mobility management in campuses to contrast CO2 emissions; at developing and implementing action plans for sustainable mobility in 30 European campuses, among others. In addition to the one that will take place in the UAB, two more international conferences of sustainable mobility will be held: in Cracow (2019) and in Bergamo (2021).

CONFERENCE WEBSITE: http://2017bcn.u-mob.eu/

U-MOB LIFE PROJECT WEBSITE: http://u-mob.eu/

Clara Borja Barberà,

Communication manager of U-MOB project