According to a global survey conducted by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) and KDS, a leading provider of online business travel management solutions, only 20 percent of managers said that companies encourage their staff to use travel providers with lower carbon emissions. Managements currently pay little attention to carbon emissions produced by their employees through traveling. Only 20 percent of respondents said their company travel departments were required to produce carbon emissions reports for senior management. Employee security and cost control are more important than limiting carbon emissions. Environmental sustainability is seen as a low priority by 45 percent of respondents. Only 23 percent of respondents said their company had tried to reduce journeys to support environmental sustainability.
According to Yves Weisselberger, CEO of KDS, “most companies are sincere in their desire to cut and manage their emissions and see travel as an area where improvements can be made. However, they are currently held back because the market doesn’t offer them the right tools to do this efficiently or on a large scale.” ACTE and KDS claim that the business travel industry should allow companies to make greener choices.
There are companies that have already accepted a kind of green approach. Booking services The Trainline and Carlson Wagonlit Travel have both announced new carbon calculators designed to allow business travellers to keep a track of, and offset, their journeys.
Overall, energy consumption and traveling must change in order to reduce the pace of global warming. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirmed that global warming exists. This ought to make companies more responsible and they should encourage their employees to use more environmental friendly means of transport. For example, traveling by train produces fewer emissions than air travel.
