Incorporating sustainability into business travel programs has gone from a luxury to a critical requirement in a world increasingly aware of environmental issues. A business travel expert reveals how to deal with the cost of going green
By Laura Busby, Commercial Director, Good Travel Management .
The higher costs associated with sustainable travel options are a major obstacle to the widespread adoption of environmentally friendly business travel practices, according to the findings of a recent report.
Although the initial cost of adopting sustainable measures may seem high, organizations must consider the long-term importance of sustainable travel to remain relevant in a competitive economic landscape.
Research indicates that 53 percent of employees would prefer to work for companies that actively support sustainable travel initiatives rather than those that do not.
This article will outline the most effective strategy to help future leaders manage their green travel expenses and create sustainable business travel programs.
Define the reasons for the trip and the frequency.
The first step is to outline the objectives of business travel. Employees often need to travel for various business reasons, such as attending client meetings, conferences, or training sessions in person.
However, excessive corporate travel is likely to conflict with sustainability goals. Therefore, it is critical that businesses identify what constitutes essential travel.
Implementing a system to capture and categorize reason codes for each business trip will help identify trends where travel is unnecessary in favor of virtual alternatives.
By taking a more strategic and purposeful approach to business travel, organizations can reduce unnecessary expenses, minimize their environmental footprint, and ensure that face-to-face interactions are reserved for situations where they add the most value.
Create a clear travel expense policy
Effectively managing business travel expenses also significantly improves a company’s sustainability profile. However, a key challenge is that a fifth of expense managers do not ensure that employees comply with their company’s travel expense policy.
Ensuring that expense policies are clearly communicated and easily accessible through the company intranet or during specific meetings can improve compliance and profitability.
Implementing and utilizing robust travel expense management software provides real-time dashboards to monitor expenses across multiple departments and projects. This helps businesses analyze trends, set realistic budgets based on past spending, and identify peak seasons that typically result in higher costs.
Organizing expenses into key categories, such as air travel, accommodations and meals, not only streamlines budget prediction and management, but also facilitates a more sustainable approach by identifying areas where environmentally friendly options can be integrated.
Encouraging the use of approved travel providers and integrating online and offline booking options ensures safer and more cost-effective travel arrangements. These practices not only optimize expense management but also support the implementation of greener travel policies, reducing a company’s carbon footprint and promoting a sustainable business model.
Making policies greener and more sustainable
The policies also serve as a crucial tool to educate travelers about effective methods to reduce the environmental impact of their trips. Often, simply equipping travelers with the necessary tools, information and experience allows them to encourage more sustainable travel practices. Implementing policies is not expensive, but provides practical and cost-effective strategies to minimize the carbon footprint associated with business travel.
To reduce carbon emissions, these policies should advocate choosing trains or electric vehicles over planes, favoring fewer but longer journeys, and selecting accommodation with genuine sustainability accreditations. Examples to consider when providing hospitality and other services include Green Key certificate, ISO 14001 accreditation and EU Ecolabel.
To make this an efficient process, travel management companies (TMCs) can help, as they have the experience and expertise to create comprehensive and customized travel policies designed to empower travelers to make more sustainable decisions in the time of booking while minimizing costs where possible.
Leverage technology and sustainability-driven partnerships
Implementing the right tools and technology can help quantify the environmental impact of business travel and can help evaluate the return on investment from an environmental and cost perspective.
Online platforms streamline this process and offer innovative solutions for tracking real-time carbon footprint data and carbon emissions projections of future business travel programs. These platforms also maintain a carbon log of all previous business trips, which is useful for sustainability and CO2 reporting.
By partnering with experts in “green travel” selection, companies can introduce precise approval mechanisms that depend on CO2 emissions for planned trips and navigate additional costs effectively, not only achieving a sustainable return on investment but also staying ahead in the race for top talent and a greener, greener environment. responsible future.
Partnering with hotels, service providers and airlines that prioritize sustainability practices is an effective way to ensure that business travel promotes greener travel options. Additionally, fostering these relationships can open doors to better pricing and cost-saving options.
Additionally, negotiating corporate rates with preferred service providers and utilizing reward schemes are effective strategies to reduce costs while promoting sustainability.
Source :Screaming Frog Agency.
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