How can I stick to a sustainable travel strategy?

Currently, the hottest topics of conversation, sustainability and corporate social responsibility are set to remain an important trend for the foreseeable, especially when it comes to travel strategy and policy.

Why is reporting key when considering a sustainable travel strategy?

When you begin to work with your Travel Management Company (TMC) to make your corporate travel strategy more sustainable they will want to know how your organisation is travelling. A consolidated overview, where possible, will deliver the best results. It’s this insight that will allow you and your TMC to make informed decisions about how to amend your organisation’s approach to travel in a realistic way.

Identifying your organisation’s travel habits will show if there are routine parts of travel that can be amended to become more environmentally friendly. For example, a regular meeting that requires group travel could be reviewed and changed to be a virtual meeting. Or there might be a frequently travelled route that could be amended to be a direct flight, rather than a journey with a transit or stopover – this may also have a positive impact on traveller well-being. And is the location one that ensures the least amount of travel for most attendees?

It’s also important to build CO2 reporting into this process. Understanding the size of your organisation’s carbon footprint will provide you with a clear starting point from which to improve, as well as enabling you to develop a robust plan for offsetting.

Should I set specific goals when considering my corporate travel sustainability?

As with any decision for change or a move to implement a new initiative, it’s vital that all stakeholders are clear on why your organisation is deciding to do this now. Has this been a goal that’s been on the agenda for a while? Is there increasing governmental or legislative pressure? Or societal pressure? Are others in your sector making similar changes? Understanding why your organisation is deciding to take action now is the first step in crafting realistic yet motivational goals that will keep your strategy moving over the years ahead.

When you come to create more specific goals, it might be useful to consider the 17 Sustainable Development Goals developed by the United Nations and match your organisation’s goals to those that you feel resonate the most. It can also be helpful to consider the travel process in three stages; pre, during and post-travel, and then build sustainability goals for each stage. Adding measurable targets and KPIs to some of these goals will also help to drive progress over the year ahead.

How do I get my corporate workforce interested in sustainability?

It’s really important for the momentum and enthusiasm for your sustainability strategies that your wider organisation gets to see how their actions are affecting the world around them. If your organisation invests in carbon offsetting programmes then why not share details and updates about the projects that are supported by your carbon credits?

ATPI Halo has been set up as a CO2 measurement, reduction and offset service, designed by travel management experts for clients’ whose employees travel for work. With carefully chosen projects that reflect client interests to invest in, Halo offers real-time reporting to enable users to see the impact of their carbon credit investments.

If you would like to chat to some about how ATPI Halo could work for your business, click here