How to align your sustainable travel initiatives with your company culture.
When the pandemic first hit in 2020, visitors to Venice evaporated almost instantly. Within days, the canals of Venice began to transform into the healthy and clean standards of decades long gone. Two years later, Venice has adapted entry rules in a hope to maintain that pristine nature. Starting this summer, the city will begin charging an entry fee and booking system for tourists in the hope of curtailing the over-tourism the city has experienced for years.
The Venice example mostly relates to personal travel (unless you were lucky enough to visit Venice for a conference), but the sentiment is the same when it comes to business travel. Stories of burnout and endless flights were typical of the pre-pandemic business travel world and most of us were afforded a break from that lifestyle for two years. Now that travel is back, how can we really make it count? The opportunity is about getting the most value out of a business trip, without compromising the environment, your time, or your wellbeing. It’s time to resume travel in a more sustainable way.
That starts with company culture, but also requires a strong and clear travel policy and appropriate tools to uphold that policy. While we can’t help you with company culture, we can certainly assist with the policy and tools components. Here’s what we’re seeing:
Sustainability is a journey.
Sustainability options need to be considered at all stages of the journey:
In the planning process – what travel partners are your people allowed/encouraged to book? What about direct vs connecting flights? During booking – can your booking platforms call out the best travel options that align to your sustainability goals? On trip – do your travellers understand their impact and are they aware of what they should and shouldn’t do? (i.e. – perhaps a train is encouraged instead of a taxi) Beyond the trip – what reporting, and analysis is set up to measure and improve the policy?
The list can go on and there are many factors at play throughout just one journey.
The tools you need.
Once you’ve determined the policy components you want to encourage for your travellers, you need access to the tools to bring those to life – empowering your travellers throughout the entire journey. Our online booking tool, Savi's carbon functionality includes:
- Green flight options highlighted throughout the booking flow
- CO2 reporting
- Approval process to flag anything outside of policy
- Hybrid and electric rental car preference selection
- Carbon emissions shown by class of air travel and aircraft type
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Know your options too.
It is pleasing to know that many of our partners in the airline, hotel, and ground transport industries are already making great strides in this space. With that in mind, Corporate Traveller has been working closely with our partners across the globe to ensure that we can provide our clients with various options to meet their sustainability goals and needs. We proactively source socially conscious industry suppliers and present our clients with the ability to report on and work with like-minded partners when you travel.
Beyond the physical tools.
We have always believed that our people are our greatest strength. That is why we also put value and pride in our ability to consult with clients to develop their plans and processes for sustainable options in real life. Corporate Traveller is made up of people that love to travel, but they also love to do it responsibly. Whilst we’ve put together this simple table to demonstrate how sustainability works alongside traveller wellness and cost, we also relish the opportunity to dive deeper into each customer’s needs on a personalised basis. That means working with you to consult specifically on your sustainability goals and desired outcomes. And it’s a two-way flow of information – we often learn from our customers along the way and look to utilise those learnings for other customers.
There is no finish line.
Our world is billions of years old. It is an incredibly powerful example of the cyclical nature of our environment. Any sustainability initiatives will work in a similar way. We admit that we don’t have all the answers, but we understand the importance and value of a strong sustainability policy and how that can, in turn, work to strengthen and maintain each company’s strong culture.
It is not an easy topic to navigate. There is a need to consider many factors including company culture, industry, geographical locations, nature of work, and more; all of which are unique to each business.
Our goal at Corporate Traveller is to help businesses navigate this complex subject and find solutions that work for the planet and for your people.