28.04.2025Saving Miles

^{Rocco Bagutti (center) flanked by his supervisors Ariane Wenger and Peter Ranacher.}

Geography student Rocco Bagutti is inter­ested in sustainable mobility systems – in particular, minimizing the negative environ­mental impact of travel. In the spring of 2020, he there­fore joined the Air Miles Group, which critical­ly examines the flights taken by the Department of Geography in order to reduce them as much as pos­sible. After all, staff are well aware of harm­ful emissions, their impact on climate change and, not least, the con­sequences of melting glaciers, which are the subject of intense research in this very depart­ment.

The young student from Ticino met with com­mitted members of staff, from professors to teaching and research assistants as well as administrative employees – all of whom pulled together to get involved. The Air Miles Group took on a pioneering role at UZH with this cause. It later re­ceived the Team Effort Award at the UZH Dies academicus for de­dicating countless hours of voluntary work to gathering and pub­lishing the flight data of staff and guests every year since 2017.

A hidden treasure trove of data

Rocco Bagutti saw the air travel data as a hidden treasure trove that could be scien­tifically evaluated to provide the depart­ment with in-depth information. He therefore pro­posed to analyze this data using statistical methods in his Master’s thesis. He also wanted to answer certain questions: what were the reasons for flying? Under what con­ditions were the employees of the Department of Geography prepared to forgo flying? And what alter­natives did they use?

The group re­sponded to Bagutti’s proposal with great approval. Peter Ranacher, senior teaching and re­search assistant and member of the Air Miles Group, offered his academic sup­port for the Master’s thesis. The topic was also accepted by geo­graphy professor Michael Zemp. “I was hugely moti­vated to do something of interest for the Department of Geography,” says Bagutti.

Combining quantitative and qualitative data

Rocco Bagutti pro­ceeded to plan his thesis step by step. He first con­ducted a statistical analysis of the flight data collected from the depart­ment. Using a geo­graphical information system (GIS), he visualized the flows of flights in the form of charts, con­structed temporal and spatial mobility patterns, and then com­bined the flight data with the results of an online question­naire in which all members of academic staff at the depart­ment took part.

A single methodical approach was not suf­ficient to determine the potential of different re­duction measures. For this reason, Bagutti followed a multi-method approach that was particularly challenging, as super­visor Peter Ranacher emphasizes. Bagutti acquired the technical and data science skills in­dependently; here he also sought and found sup­port outside the Department of Geography. Ariane Wenger, an environ­mental scientist at ETH Zurich, tackled reducing academic flights in her dis­sertation as part of ETH Zurich’s air travel project. Bagutti was able to benefit from Wenger’s ex­pertise.

Understanding the dynamics of academic careers

Using statistical methods, Bagutti gained a pre­cise picture of how often flights are taken and to which destinations. He also con­ducted a staff survey to find out the opinions held by re­searchers at the Department of Geography on reducing air travel. In response, he re­ceived deep in­sights into the dynamics of academic careers and re­cognized just how important inter­national relations are in the academic world. “Travel is not only necessary to carry out re­search projects but also, for example, for net­working at conferences,” he notes. For instance, he was able to show in which cases virtual com­munications are preferred, and in which cases on-site are necessary.

“For his Master’s thesis, Rocco Bagutti con­ducted an academic study that meets very high standards and also provides great prac­tical value in the long term,” says super­visor Peter Ranacher. “Anyone who plans their Master’s thesis as care­fully, conducts it as precisely and analyzes it as pro­fessionally as he has done un­doubtedly deserves a semester award.”

“Rocco’s study was very useful for re­ducing air travel at UZH,” Ranacher concludes. The study provided a foun­dation for documenting the reasons for air travel at the Department of Geography, and it helped UZH find solutions for re­ducing air travel without adversely affecting research projects and academic careers. Thanks to its publication, the study also made a valuable con­tribution to academic literature. Air travel at the Department of Geography and the resulting e­missions have decreased sub­stantially in recent years, as can be seen in the annual reports. For instance, members of the department flew 30% less in 2023 than they did in the re­ference period from 2017 to 2019.

Rocco Bagutti was a member of the Sustainability Task Force at the Department of Geography until 2024. He has now com­pleted his studies and works at the Federal Roads Office.