When planning your trip to Vienna, look for an alternative to flying. Give priority to using the train, whenever possible. Travelling by train rather than a plane can lower your carbon footprint (per km) by a factor of between 5 and 42 times.

There are several websites that give helpful information on how to do this and find the best train connections form your city to Vienna. Enjoy the ride!

• https://www.seat61.com — Train travel in the UK, Europe and Worldwide. It gives a good introduction to the train travel options from your home country
• https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/nightjet.htm and https://www.nightjet.com/en/ticket-buchen/#/home — The NightJet links various European cities with Vienna by night trains. Follow the links to find more information on the night trains options to Vienna and book your tickets.
• These websites enable you to buy train tickets from any city in Europe to any other city. Be mindful that they do not always give all night train options (see above).
  • https://www.thetrainline.com/trains/europe
  • https://www.raileurope.com/
• Trip Planner - ÖBB (oebb.at) — The Austrian Railways website. It offers also the possibility of planning international trips. 
• https://eurostar.com/uk-en — For those travelling from the UK.

Case study: Manchester to Vienna by train

The carbon footprint of a return journey by plane would have been 0.43 tCO2e but is only 0.04 tCO2e by train.

Outward journey

 Wed 10th May 

Train 1 08:55 Manchester to Euston 11:09

Train 2 13:01 St Pancras to Brussels Midi 16:06 - Eurostar

Train 3 19:32 Bruxelles Midi to Wien Hbf 09:14 (Thurs 12th May) – NightJet

Return journey

Tue 16th May

Train 1 20:11 Wien Hbf to Bruxelles Midi 09:55 (Wed 17th May)

Train 2 12:56 Brussels Midi to St Pancras 13:57

Train 3 15:33 Euston to Manchester 17:44

Like Rob, do not hesitate to share your travel plans with the community by using #GoGreen23 on social media.

Vienna is a city that invests a lot in sustainability, and so does the congress venue. Here a few things you can contribute with in Vienna to lessen your carbon footprint.

• Use public transport to and from the venue/hotel
  • Choose your accommodation to be near the venue or close to public transport
  • Public transport is the preferred way to move around Vienna. Two underground stations of the Wiener Linien are just a stone’s throw away from the venue’s main entrances. (U2 Station “Messe/Prater” and “Krieau”). Follow the link to plan your journey once in Vienna: Planning your Journey - Wiener Linien or https://fahrplan.oebb.at/webapp/ (the language can be changed in the menu in the top left)
  • For those who prefer arriving or leaving by bike, a rental station of Citybike Vienna is directly located in front of our venue. The bikes can be rented and returned at any of the 120 bike-stations all around the city. The bikes are available 24/7. Here more information:
  • Because the congress venue is located in the heart of the city it is also easily accessible on foot. The St. Stephans Cathedral is just 3,5 kilometers or around 40 unhurried minutes away.
• If you are staying close to the venue, walk to and from the hotel.
• Separate your waste during the congress into the provided recycling bins.
• You can also avoid buying bottled water, as tap-water is drinking water throughout the whole venue.
• Choose vegetarian food – remember that restaurants produce more food waste than you typically do in your private home.

ESTRO will also reduce the printed material, using the app as much as possible, and avoid having delegate congress bags.

Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center is proud to be a Healthy Venue, its group is a dedicated signatory of the UN Global Compact which uses the Sustainable Development Goals – SDGs to chart business participation in achieving these aims.

Here what they are doing, and we thank Messe Wien for this:

• Centrally located venue in Europe, easy to reach also by train
• Directly linked to public transport
• A lot of hotels in the near surrounding in walking distance
• Rent-a-bike-stations and bike lanes in front of the entrance foyers
• Certified with the Austrian Ecolabel for Green Meetings and Green Events
• Partners/suppliers certified with the Austrian Ecolabel
• Licensor for Green Meetings and Green Events
• Use of sustainable cleaning agents
• Office paper and hygienic paper with Ecolabel
• Waste management concept (recycling bins in delegate areas, waste separation at build-up and tear-down)
• LED lighting in Congress Center and Exhibition halls
• Well-water in toilets in the Congress Center – no drinking water is used for toilet flushes
• Provide you with waste and energy consumption data after the event to calculate your C02 footprint
• Tap-water is drinking water throughout the whole venue.

Read some inspiring stories and initiatives from participants to travel to Vienna in a sustainable way. Share your story with the community on social media using the hashtag #GoGreenESTRO23 or send us your story at chardon@estro.org.

The Aahrus Green Team