FCM, one of the world’s largest travel management companies, has partnered with South Pole, a leading expert in global climate action and project development, to launch a new global carbon offsetting program. It will also offset all staff travel worldwide once pandemic restrictions allow employees to travel for business purposes again. This step will also be backdated to 2019.

The South Pole partnership will allow FCM to support multinational clients in setting up a solution to neutralize the carbon impact of their business travel and will make a significant difference in helping them meet their sustainability goals. It enables clients to offset against global flights, hotel accommodation, rail bookings, car rental and other business travel components.  

FCM can calculate, record and report monthly or quarterly CO₂ emissions globally per item for each client, who can then choose from specific climate action projects against which to offset their total carbon footprint.

FCM and South Pole have compiled a list of 12 positive environmental impact projects worldwide, including forestry conservation or restoration and community energy or water programs.  Each is a global standard sustainability project. Examples include Access to Clean Water for Better Health in Cambodia; Solar Power for a Cleaner Energy Future in India; Kariba Forest Protection in Zimbabwe; and Uretim Osmaniye Wind Farm in Turkey. Clients can select one or up to four projects to suit their budget, geographic area and preferred impact categories.

The partnership also dovetails with development of FCM’s new proprietary platform technology, which puts sustainability at the heart of the booking process, helping employees make better decisions regarding their carbon footprint, while helping organizations meet their global sustainability goals. FCM Platform’s sustainability dashboard shows travelers their individual CO2 travel stats and enables travel managers to see total carbon footprint and CO2 savings achieved. Depending on the specific corporations' needs, moving forward we will also be able to show a sustainability dashboard with carbon credits and their offsetting  projects.

Marcus Eklund, Global Managing Director, FCM commented: “We’re making sustainability a core pillar of our customer offering for 2021, putting greater focus on guiding and supporting clients with their objectives, particularly in terms of CO₂ reporting and a carbon offsetting solution that enables them to contribute to positive climate action.  

Sustainability has moved higher up our customer’s business travel agenda, despite the impact of COVID-19. In fact, after the travel bans of 2020 enabled companies to reduce their carbon footprint from travel significantly many are not only re-emphasizing their overall environmental objectives post-COVID, they’re making them an integral part of travel policies and RFPs.