Developing a green travel policy
News Article - 08 February 2010
Category:
Environment
Despite the introduction of video-conferencing and other advanced communication methods, business travel is in many cases a necessity. But with increasing pressure on businesses to develop greener practices, the high environmental costs of business travel can have a negative affect on company reputation and profitability.
Developing a green travel policy is an effective way to both increase investment in green areas and consolidate business travel costs, saving money in the long term. Some companies may be put off by the inevitable costs involved that must be agreed by the boardroom. However, business travel is a particularly carbon-intensive activity and companies can show a significant commitment to the green agenda when they develop a green travel policy.
Studies have frequently shown how damaging business travel is to the environment:
- The average expense-claiming employee generates enough carbon dioxide each year to boil a kettle 105,413 times.
- If all internal flights were taken by train, by 2015 118,000 – 362,000 tonnes of carbon and 18,000 – 58,000 tonnes of nitrogen oxides emissions would have been avoided.
- 7.7m train journeys are claimed for each year, compared to 1.6m flights, yet the flights created more than six times as much carbon dioxide.
The Department for Transport offers informational papers that will help businesses looking to implement a greener travel policy to develop a strong business case for doing so. In addition organisations should ensure carbon output is measured efficiently, and that concrete goals are included in green travel policies to ensure the policy is not merely aspirational.
Benchmarking current carbon output levels is essential if travel policies are to be proactive at reducing carbon output. Businesses should look for key metrics that can be analysed over time as evidence of the effectiveness of green travel policies, such as the carbon output produced by company cars.
Regular benchmarking allows green travel policies to target the most carbon-intensive areas of the business. For example, if the majority of a companies’ carbon emissions related to travel come from car journeys, a green travel policy may wish to put an emphasis on car sharing, electric vehicles and discounts on rail travel.
Access carbon reporting software breaks down carbon output in a number of ways including by department, travel type and individual staff member. This provides companies with valuable metrics that can help develop a sustainable and high-return green travel policy.
In addition, green travel policies must avoid being idealistic; concrete targets should be a focal point to ensure the business reduces the environmental impact of its travelling. Setting targets based on carbon output is an effective way of doing this: for example, a company may set a three-year goal of a 20% reduction output from car journeys.
Access can advise organisations on how its business software helps measure and report on carbon output, to track the success of a green travel policy. For more information, please call 0845 345 3300.
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