The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Foundation has released a new benchmarking study which sheds light on the approaches that leading companies are using to decarbonise travel programmes.
Titled Managing Emissions From Business Travel Programs: Overview of Corporate Best Practices, this first-of-its-kind report provides a snapshot of purpose-driven companies that are addressing and mitigating their business travel emissions. The study examines which measures are most effective in reducing the climate impact of Scope 3 emissions from business travel and key considerations for implementation and success.
“One of the biggest challenges for achieving more sustainable business travel is knowing how to build the path and the programme to get there. We went to companies and leaders in sustainability to bring forth best practices and insights that can help any company seeking to travel greener and better,” said Delphine Millot, managing director, GBTA Foundation.
Millot added that tackling Scope 3.6 emissions needs to be a joint effort across the entire global business travel value chain and relies on common ownership and shared responsibility between the suppliers and users of travel services.
Forging the path toward a climate-conscious travel programme
The report lays out a pathway of building blocks for companies to create a more climate-conscious travel programme – from getting started with measures requiring less effort and funding, to advancing with more ambitious strategies, activities, and outcomes.
Developing a sustainable travel programme involves a combination of measures at different levels and working with various stakeholders. The report outlines measures across four critical categories: travel decisions, emissions tracking, supplier engagement, and decarbonisation. Additionally, it provides a toolbox of action areas to efficiently reduce emissions while aligning to organization budgets, available time, company culture, and other factors.
Six key points for success in reducing business travel emissions
Lowering the impact of business travel on the environment is an iterative process. The report identifies commonalities among interviewees, emphasizing the integral elements necessary to effectively reduce emissions from business travel:
- No One Size Fits All: Evaluate needs and return on investment before drawing from the toolbox.
- Make a Demand Signal: Corporate travel managers have a key role to play in signalling a growing demand for greener travel options.
- Start Today: Strive to improve emissions data − but don’t let perfection halt progress.
- Go “Glocal”: Global strategies should be localized to consider infrastructure and cultural differences.
- Future Proof: Combine quick wins with longer-term investments.
- Collaboration is Key: Sustainability is a shared effort between corporate travel managers, procurement, sustainability, and employee travellers.
Additional topics covered in the report include integrating climate considerations into corporate travel policies, measuring travel programme emissions, greening the procurement process, and navigating Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) opportunities.
The report’s benchmarking methodology consisted of interviews with a dozen sustainability leaders from global companies that rely on business travel to successfully conduct their business. Participants included members of the GBTA Foundation’s Sustainability Corporate Advisory Board, in collaboration with the GBTA Sustainability Leadership Council.
The full report can be downloaded here.
The Foundation is also set to launch a new global State of Climate Action study in June 2023. This report follows last year’s State of Sustainability in Global Business Travel Study and aims to measure the adoption of best practices for reducing Scope 3.6 emissions across the entire business travel community. The report will provide statistics on the progress made by various organisations in different regions toward their climate goals.
The report will be unveiled on June 13, 2023, at GBTA’s 2nd Sustainability Summit in Washington, D.C. which will include travel buyer case studies presented by Google, Salesforce and Shell.
The GBTA Foundation’s Sustainability Program has also released a Sustainability Toolkit to guide, inform, and empower corporate travel managers in reducing the climate impact of business travel in their organisation.
