As long as there is a need for business travel, we need to do everything possible to reduce the impact on our environment.
Organisations are making great strides towards sustainable corporate travel with greener travel programmes and policies being widely adopted by business travel managers.
So how can we make travel more sustainable and what can the traveller do?
You can do many of the same things you would do at home to reduce waste, such as avoiding single-use plastics, making sustainable meal choices where food is sourced from local suppliers and embracing sustainable fashion both when packing for a trip or when choosing purchases while you’re away.
Hotels and other accommodation providers are increasingly eco-conscious. Choose the ones with the best record on, for example, energy saving.
Think too about location. To pick an eco-friendly hotel then spend hours travelling by car or train to meetings would be a false economy. Where using transportation at your destination is unavoidable, choose venues where greener choices are provided, such as electric vehicles.
While we all have some responsibility for the choices we make, the business traveller should expect to get help from their travel management company (TMC). For example, if travellers need to fly, choice of route could make a big difference, potentially saving hundreds of miles on a single trip.
TMCs should work with their clients to ensure that green policies are factored into the planning of travel programmes alongside cost, convenience and the overall traveller experience. By making carbon reports and other environmental data increasingly transparent and easy to understand, organisations and individuals can consider these factors in their wider decisions about business travel.
The list of things to think about may appear daunting when there’s already enough to worry about when planning corporate travel. The good news is you don’t have to do it all yourself. All the partners in the travel supply chain are developing eco-conscious policies and practices.
Your TMC should be able to do most of the heavy lifting and pull this information together for you so all you need to do is enjoy the trip.
Read more here