The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) and its charitable arm, the GBTA Foundation, have revealed new developments in its commitment, partnering and programming in sustainability to empower the global business travel industry to reduce carbon emissions and build a greener future.
Recently, GBTA became a signatory of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism. Officially launched at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November 2021, the Glasgow Declaration unites travel and tourism behind a common set of pathways for climate action, aligning the sector with global commitments and catalysing collaborative solutions to the many challenges facing businesses and destinations globally.
GBTA is among the 230 supporting organisations that have stepped forward to date to help accelerate climate action in tourism and take action to cut emissions in half by 2030 and achieve Net Zero as soon as possible before 2050.
GBTA has also entered into a strategic partnership with the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance to enhance collaborative action to enable the hospitality industry to have a lasting positive impact. A key pillar for joint action will be to drive the uptake of a consistent approach to carbon measurement for the accommodation sector.
This is why GBTA recognises the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative, the carbon calculation methodology developed by the Alliance, as a go-to standard measurement which is included in GBTA’s revamped Sustainability Toolkit, a guide for corporate travel managers to track and improve the environmental performance on their travel programmes.
Finally, GBTA will be hosting its first Global Sustainability Summit on November 8, 2022, in Brussels, focusing on Driving Action to Net Zero Business Travel. This one-day, high-level event, will bring together speakers, experts, industry and policy leaders to outline concrete solutions to decarbonise business travel, in alignment with the Paris Climate Goals – and concurrently to the 27th UN Climate Summit in Egypt.
Speakers include Walter Goetz, head of cabinet for EU Transport commissioner Adina Vălean; Brune Poirson, chief sustainability officer for Accor and former French secretary of state for the environment; Paul Abbott, CEO, American Express Global Business Travel; Glenn Mandziuk, CEO, Sustainable Hospitality Alliance; and Kim Carnahan, head of the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance, among others.
Gabrielle Walker, founder and director of Valence Solutions and non-profit, Rethinking Removals, will also talk about The Climate for Change and what a low carbon future looks like for business travel.
