Sustainable Business Travel: Think green. Act green. Fly green.

There has long been a saying in the corporate travel sector … ‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it’.

The same can be said of our carbon footprint from travel. We can’t control our travel footprint if we have no idea how big it is. Travellers and travel bookers need visibility of a trip’s carbon impact, if they want to make informed booking choices that help their organisation achieve its sustainability goals.  

More corporates are trying to drive positive change for climate security and sustainable development. They are increasingly looking for effective solutions within their business travel programme that can help to influence purchase decisions and reduce impact.

- Scott Reddie, Chief Business Officer Asia, FCM Travel

Having transparency of each traveller’s CO₂ output is an important part of developing a sustainable travel programme. So too is educating individual travellers and travel bookers on the amount of CO₂ emitted from different trip components.

Companies who are interested to step up on the sustainability game in their travel programme can look at two options:

1. Include the CO₂ display against flight segments. The objective here is to educate travellers and travel arrangers about the emission footprint of each booking.
2. Work with FCM to implement programmes that introduces carbon levies against each flight booked and package into a portfolio to offset with your chosen green initiative.

The dawn of carbon-emissions display

Customers can now switch up the way their bookers or travellers book travel. The CO₂ emissions panel presents information for every flight booking enquiry including the total carbon emission generated for that journey. This allows customers to compare and make informed decisions on every booking.

In addition, customers can also enforce similar offline booking decisions that includes sustainable considerations within their travel policy. This ensures a consistent adoption of policy control by travellers and bookers, reinforces awareness and cultivates behaviour through repetitive actions in various booking processes and channels.

“Minimising carbon emissions is not going to make an organisation sustainable overnight. However, you need to start somewhere and every small step can be the catalyst that contributes to a bigger difference,” added Scott.

To further this end, FCM also provides programme management and consult to help customers build a holistic travel programme that goes beyond merely counting emissions.

Welcoming the next wave of sustainability through strategic programming

FCM works with clients to establish what is important to their organisation from a sustainability perspective through sustainability workshops to understand client’s needs and identify suitable programmes for them.

Is your organisation mainly focused on your air travel footprint or would you like to see strategies in place for air travel, accommodation and ground transport? Additionally, how much is your organisation willing to contribute to reduce your overall environmental impact?

“We want to engage clients through these thought-provoking questions so they can start to build a sustainable programme now because there is no doubt that we will all have commitments to deliver on in the future,” said Scott. 

FCM partners with South Pole to support customers with a solution that helps to neutralise the carbon impact of their business travel and make a significant difference in helping them meet their sustainability goals. The partnership enables organisations to offset against global flights, hotel accommodation, rail bookings, car rental and other business travel components. South Pole is a leading expert in global climate action and project development.