With climate change in the news daily, there’s no question
an increasing number of employees worry about the environmental footprint of
their business travel. Many would happily make greener travel choices if that
information was presented to them alongside rich, personalized supplier
content. I’m hopeful this decade will link the dual trends of sustainability
and personalization and potentially deliver huge benefits to both the
environment and the traveler experience.
Over the last decade, corporate travel teams have been
responsible for significant carbon-reduction initiatives within the enterprise.
Great gains remain to be made if we empower business travelers to make travel
choices that better reflect their personal values and are also better for the
wider environment.
In the last few years, the International Air Transport
Association has created basic industry standards for aviation emissions. A few
solution providers like KDS Neo have integrated a green option into the online
booking tool, allowing users to choose routes based on low emissions, rather
than cost or journey time.
But sustainability is about so much more than carbon
emissions and right now, it’s the wild west when it comes to defining what
counts as “green.” Travel suppliers by and large are using their own metrics to
measure and communicate wider sustainability. This free-for-all confuses
travelers and leaves the industry at risk of so-called “greenwashing.”
If we’re going to see business travelers embrace sustainable
choices en masse, we urgently need an industrywide push, with perhaps GBTA or
ACTE getting behind the challenge to create standards. These standards need to
go beyond a traveler’s carbon footprint. They need to account for supplier
water usage, policies on single-use plastics, reliance on non-renewable energy,
commitment on food miles—the audit goes on.
For now, it’s left to corporate travel teams to try and put
the pieces together to advise business travelers. That advice is bound to be
piecemeal at best and, crucially, travel teams have no way of presenting that
information when the traveler most needs it—at the point of booking.
Most booking platforms have done a bad job at providing
actionable information on sustainable travel choices. Business travelers need
comparative emissions information on flight routes, rail routes presented
alongside flights, the option to hire electric cars and to stay in
carbon-neutral hotels. It’s not enough to tick the green box. And how many
would happily forgo the a free newspaper at their hotel or access to an airline
lounge in exchange for the greater benefit of a tree being planted to help
offset their trip?
There’s a new generation placing more value on reducing
their carbon footprint than on whether they fly silver or gold. If businesses
and their travel suppliers can get this right, they’ll be able to recruit new
talent from a position of strength and win a new, greener kind of loyalty from
their employees and customers. And the planet will thank them for it.