The transport system has significant impacts on both climate and biodiversity. The University of Jyväskylä, Finland, will assess the carbon and biodiversity footprint of Finland’s entire transport system during 2025. A report on the requirements for the footprint calculation has now been completed in collaboration with the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom.
The transport system covers all traffic routes, various modes and means of transport as well as mobility services. It is essential for the functioning of society and highly significant due to its structure and operations. Simultaneously, transport systems have numerous impacts on climate and biodiversity. Last year, the University of Jyväskylä’s resource wisdom community JYU.Wisdom launched a research project in collaboration with the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom to investigate the biodiversity impacts of the entire Finnish transport system during 2025.
“The project is well underway, and it has already been mapped what information is available on the various aspects of the transport system for footprint calculation,” says doctoral researcher Venla Leppilampi from the University of Jyväskylä. “We have also assessed which aspects could have the most significant impact on the biodiversity footprint.”
Together towards a sustainable transport system
The biodiversity impacts caused by transport systems have not been comprehensively assessed before, even though transport is known to be a significant source of emissions in Finland. Emissions contribute to climate change, which is one of the causes of biodiversity loss. Therefore, emissions are also relevant for the assessment of biodiversity impacts.
“This project is potentially the first of its kind globally to evaluate the biodiversity impacts of a country’s entire transport system in quantitative terms,” says Director of the University of Jyväskylä’s resource wisdom community JYU.Wisdom and Professor of Ecology Janne Kotiaho. “The first step in minimising the negative impacts is to understand what adverse effects arise from each part of the transport system. We cannot stop moving and transporting goods completely, but together we must find ways to reduce these operations and use smarter ways to get to places, such as walking, cycling as well as using public transport.”
One of Traficom’s tasks is to limit the environmental impacts caused by transport. Traficom is also involved in national transport system planning and the assessment of the plan’s environmental impacts.
“Calculating the biodiversity footprint of the transport system will improve the transport sector’s understanding of its biodiversity impacts and help identify measures at the transport system level to reduce the footprint,” says Special Adviser Hanna Strömmer from Traficom. “In addition, the calculation of the biodiversity footprint allows for measuring environmental impacts and, as a result, setting targets for them.”
Life cycle environmental impacts of the transport system
The environmental impacts of transportation can be reduced through land use and construction planning, vehicle technology and fuel-related measures, as well as by changing mobility patterns.
“It is important to consider the life-cycle environmental impacts of the production and disposal of materials consumed in the use, maintenance and construction of the transport system, in addition to the negative impacts of land use and emissions,” says Leppilampi.
Footprints enable a company or organisation to understand the biodiversity impacts of its operations
The carbon footprint is already widely used to assess climate impacts, and tools for assessing the biodiversity footprint, that is, biodiversity impacts, are continuously being developed.
“Biodiversity loss, however, is not yet recognised as extensively, but the international scientific community has emphasised that it should be addressed alongside climate change in solutions aimed at reducing environmental impacts,” explains Leppilampi. “Climate change is one of the key drivers of biodiversity loss, and investigating the carbon footprint is one of the intermediate steps for the calculation of the biodiversity footprint.”
The carbon and biodiversity footprint of the Finnish transport system will be calculated using the Biovalent calculation method developed by the University of Jyväskylä’s resource wisdom community JYU.Wisdom. The calculation will be carried out as doctoral research by the multidisciplinary Sustainability Transformations Doctoral School. Ways to reduce the footprint of the transport system will also be analysed as part of the research.
The report on the requirements for the footprint calculation is available at: https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-86-0591-1