As a global university in the heart of London, our students and staff travel for fieldwork and fieldtrips, to share their research at international conferences and to build global partnerships.

King's recognises the impact that student and staff travel has on the environment. Travel is a significant area of emissions, reported in our Environmental Sustainability Report.

To address the environmental impact, we have developed travel policies and targets to reduce these emissions and a Sustainable Travel Guide.

Find out more about King's sustainable travel policies below.

National and international travel

In November 2024, King’s introduced its new Sustainable Travel Policy. This is a key lever to help us achieve our commitment to reducing business travel emissions by 50% by 2030, compared to 2018-19 (King’s Climate & Sustainability Action Plan). Complete information can be found on our Business Travel webpages (internal only), including FAQs.

• Everyone is encouraged to consider whether travel is essential for University business, and, where possible, to use virtual collaboration tools and choose low-carbon options for essential journeys instead.
• The travel hierarchy helps you to consider the means of travel, from most sustainable to least, and the travel decision tree can help you decide whether to travel, and how to travel based on your destination and requirements.
• Flights for business travel within mainland UK are only be permitted in exceptional circumstances (such as caring responsibilities and mobility issues) or for connecting flights. Formal approval for exceptional circumstances must be provided by the relevant senior officer before travel is booked.
• For international destinations reachable from London by train within 5 hours (e.g. Paris, Brussels), colleagues are strongly encouraged to take the train rather than fly, where possible.
• Travellers are encouraged to choose the more environmentally sustainable travel option even when this is more expensive, where funds (and funding regulations) permit. 
• We recommend that staff book business travel through our travel provider Key Travel.
• Our Sustainable Travel Guide can help you travel more sustainably.

Travel to and between campuses

We encourage students and staff to travel actively to and between campuses where possible. Active travel, such as cycling, walking and wheeling, have health and environmental benefits and can help you save money.

Secure bike storage facilities are available across our campuses, and many of these contain bike repair stands for simple bike repairs.

Transport for London provide maps of cycling lanes in London, which can be used to plan your route.

Find out about King's Cycle to Work scheme (intranet page).

Find out more about our cycling facilities.