Tips to create a sustainable business travel programme

Sustainable travel has never been more important. Travel, including transport, food and accommodation, is responsible for around 8% of the world's carbon emissions. [1] As the corporate travel industry flourishes, businesses are increasingly taking responsibility by reducing the environmental impact of their corporate trips. While it might seem challenging to combine sustainable practices with your business goals, travelling sustainably positively impacts your business as well as the environment. You can reduce your company's carbon footprint and boost local economies, all while setting up your business for lasting success. 

We've put together some essential tips to help you build a travel programme that minimises the environmental impact of your business travel, while safeguarding resources for future generations. 

Sustainability is a way of using environmental, social and economic resources responsibly to ensure that future generations have access to the same resources. We've broken down the main aspects of sustainability that businesses can contribute to while travelling:

Protecting and preserving the natural environment by minimising carbon emissions and using resources responsibly. 

Supporting local communities' wellbeing and preserving your destination's cultural integrity.

Contributing to a stable and resilient local economy while promoting sustainable economic growth for your company.

As you can see, there are many areas where companies can have a positive impact through their business travel programmes. We've put together some tips to help you create a sustainable travel programme that's good for the environment, local communities and your business.

Sustainability should be a top priority for business travel management. These are some things that travel managers should consider when planning a business trip to minimise their company's environmental impact:

One of the simplest ways to reduce your carbon footprint is to reduce how often you take business trips. Try to ensure every business trip is essential travel, so you're not wasting precious resources on unnecessary trips.

Building an efficient itinerary can reduce CO2 emissions and wasted resources. This could include booking business venues and accommodation in the same area to minimise travel, or thoughtfully scheduling meetings and events to avoid booking extra nights unnecessarily. 

Keeping track of all bookings in a centralised system helps you monitor your carbon impact and identify areas where you could improve efficiency. 

You can use our guide to efficient travel planning to learn more about sustainable travel management.

Building a sustainable travel policy is essential to ensure that all business trips comply with your company's commitment to sustainability. It also empowers employees to make the best choices for the environment and your business on corporate trips. 

It's helpful to start by assessing the carbon footprint of previous business trips. You can use your findings to identify opportunities to reduce emissions and outline a sustainability strategy for your company's travel policy. Some of our recommendations are:

• Establish a list of preferred airlines that use sustainable aviation fuel or contribute to carbon offsetting programmes.

• Share a list of recommended hotels that are committed to social and environmental responsibility.

• Ask corporate travel managers to monitor the carbon emissions of business trips and share them with employees. 

• Set a maximum individual carbon footprint goal.

For more guidance on building a sustainable travel policy, check out our complete guide to travel policies.  

Sustainability is a team effort. Reducing the impact of business travel requires commitment from your company and your team. It's vital to ensure that employees are committed to your company's sustainability strategy and understand how to make sustainable choices on business trips. 

You could consider educating employees through dedicated sustainable travel training. This should include explaining the sustainability objectives outlined in your travel policy. Ensure your team has access to a copy, and ask them to commit to sustainable travel practices before going on business trips. 

Another great way to get the team involved in sustainability efforts is to provide incentives for making responsible travel choices, such as offering rewards to teams with the smallest business travel carbon footprint.

Look for hotels committed to energy efficiency, preserving water resources and reducing and recycling waste. The hotel industry accounts for 1% of global carbon emissions [2], so you can make a real difference by selecting a sustainable hotel. 

Accor group hotels are designed with sustainability in mind from the outset. All hotels have optimised their waste management, energy, and water consumption to ensure responsible resource consumption. We are also working to eliminate single-use plastics and promote a circular economy. 

Our socially conscious and eco-friendly hotels are the perfect choice for a sustainable travel programme. To find the right Accor group hotel for your next business trip, check out our top picks of business travel hotels.

To cut down on your travel emissions, it's a great idea to reduce air travel when possible, since aviation emissions account for about 90% of business travel emissions. [3] If you do need to travel by plane to get to your destination, here are a few ways you can reduce your environmental footprint:

The most significant carbon impact of flights occurs at take-off and landing, so choosing direct flights helps reduce CO2 emissions. Most business professionals will also prefer the speed and convenience of a direct flight.

Look for airlines with a sustainable policy, such as using sustainable aviation fuel or investing in carbon offsets.

While flying in business class is attractive for many corporate travellers, it has a greater environmental impact due to the larger fuel consumption per passenger. Choosing a lower class of travel is a simple way to reduce GHG emissions while saving costs. You could even offer incentives for employees who choose to fly economy class.

While sometimes flying cannot be avoided for business trips, it's important to consider more eco-friendly modes of transport. Look into options with a lower carbon impact for shorter distances, such as trains, intercity buses, or carpooling.

Once at the destination, encourage travellers to use green local transport. For example, consider implementing rules that make public transport compulsory for travelling to and from airports. Modern cities are also well-equipped with public transit options for getting to different business meetings and commitments. If you need private ground transportation, ensure that each vehicle transports the maximum number of travellers and look for electric vehicles or hybrid car rentals when possible.

You could also select accommodation within walking distance of business venues. Walking is the greenest transport option and allows travellers to enjoy the local environment and culture at their destination.

Business travellers should use resources responsibly while on the road by reducing, reusing and recycling when possible. We have a few suggestions for how to minimise your team's environmental impact while travelling: 

• Provide reusable water bottles for trips to reduce the usage of plastic water bottles. This can be an excellent opportunity to offer company water bottles that help the environment while showcasing your company's dedication to sustainability. 

• To reduce paper waste, go paperless with travel documents, such as sharing an online itinerary and using digital tickets. Many airlines are already moving to 100% digital boarding passes, so you can get ahead of the curve with digital travel documents.  

• Reduce water and energy usage in hotels by keeping room cleaning to a minimum. Accor has launched 'Skip the Clean', encouraging guests to opt out of unnecessary housekeeping visits. Not only does this minimise your environmental impact, it also earns you ALL Reward points, which you can connect to your business loyalty account.  

It's essential to recognise the impact of business travel on local communities. Business travellers should be aware that they are guests in a community and should respect local culture. We have some recommendations for how your team can support a sustainable future for your destination:

• Research the destination, especially cultural norms and customs, to ensure that travellers are respectful. This could include sharing a list of religious or cultural events that employees should be aware of, or suggesting appropriate attire for foreign visitors. 

• Invest in local businesses to support a sustainable future for your destination. Many Accor group hotels offer the chance to buy locally made products, a great way to support local enterprises. 

• Eat at local restaurants to support the local economy. Look for restaurants that use locally sourced ingredients to reduce your meal's carbon footprint.  

Even if you follow all our recommendations, the environmental cost of business travel cannot be eliminated. However, you can invest in carbon offsets to make your trip carbon neutral.

As the first international hotel group to make a long-term commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, Accor are dedicated to making your stay as sustainable as possible. You can use our carbon footprint calculator to measure the environmental impact of your stay with Accor. We then offer the opportunity to purchase certified carbon credits to mitigate your emissions. Read the complete guide to Accor's carbon offset programme to learn more.

There are more ways than ever to make business travel sustainable, so now is the perfect time to rethink your corporate travel strategy. Use our recommendations to make your next business trip a positive experience for your business and the environment. Book a hotel with Accor to take the first step to sustainable travel. 

If you want to learn more about travel management, you can check out our article on business travel management for small businesses. You can also discover the essential business travel tips every corporate traveller should know.

References:

[1] Lenzen M, Sun Y-Y, Faturay F, Ting Y-P, Geschke A, Malik A. The carbon footprint of global tourism. Nat Clim Chang. 2018;8(6):522–8. 

[2] https://sustainablehospitalityalliance.org/our-work/climate-action/

[3] https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/corporate-business-travel-carbon-budgets-loom-airlines-2021-10-10/#