A report by ACE Travel Management has found that 45% of people do not feel informed enough to make sustainable decisions when travelling for business. Despite the uncertainty caused due to the impact of COVID-19, now is the time for businesses to improve their consideration for sustainable travel.
There is no question that sustainability is going to be one of the biggest challenges facing the business travel industry in the years to come. With the direct impact of COVID-19 shaking the travel sector and consumers becoming more conscious of the environmental impacts of air travel, now is the time for businesses and corporations to improve their sustainability efforts to their corporate travel programs.
Get suppliers in line
Whatever the size of your business, making sustainability a central component of your travel policy is key as companies face increasing pressure from governments, competitors, and employees to play a leading role in addressing a wide array of environmental, social, and governance issues.
Include green language in your travel policies – demand that suppliers report on carbon emissions, dig deeper into supply chains, ask your travel management company for a responsible travel statement and check which airlines are most efficient.
Engage and educate
Sustainable practices are easier to implement if everyone has bought in. Tools such as ACE Travel’s sustainability guides allow organisations to inform their employees – making it easier to set targets and incentives. Sustainability guides can help business travellers make more sustainable decisions, such as examining alternative modes of transport where possible, offering insight into how to choose sustainable options whilst conducting business in a new location – from hotels to transport to dining out.
Travel smart
Get the most from a traveller’s air miles – combine multiple meetings and events into one trip; encourage employees to have business and leisure breaks by tagging holidays onto the end of business trips; and always send the minimum number of people.
Consider the 3 Cs
At ACE Travel Management promotes the 3 Cs in business travel policy: Care, Climate and Cos, which will be a big focus for now and a post-COVID environment. Duty of care for employee wellbeing while they travel; seeking more efficient, sustainable methods where budget allows; finding fares and flights that work for your business’ budget. And with their most recent survey data showing how important these issues are becoming for businesses, this is the perfect time to find ways of making business travel a little more sustainable.
Work with a travel management company
Another obstacle for businesses in engaging with carbon offsetting is the administrative difficulty with tracking carbon emissions across all of their business travel. Whilst there are plenty of tools and websites which allow you to easily calculate CO2 emissions and report them, this can be difficult in larger organisations with multiple business travellers. Luckily, business travel management companies can help businesses track CO2 emissions across their trip without the need for extra administrative work – making it easier and clearer to report your offsetting.
For more on responsible business travel visit https://www.acetravel.co.uk/sustainable-business-travel-guides
