After falling significantly during the pandemic, business travel is skyrocketing in 2024. But with more and more companies now compelled to commit to sustainability targets, sustainable business travel is becoming less of a choice and more of a necessity.

But how do you travel more sustainably for work? When it comes to picking the right hotels or choosing the most carbon-efficient transport, we’ve got all the tips you need to make your business trips that little bit greener.

So, forget simply paying to offset your business travel carbon footprint in this blog we’ll help you make the right decisions to reduce your emissions and lower your company’s overall environmental impact from the get-go.

Ready to turn over a new green leaf?

 

TL;DR

• Sustainable business travel reduces the environmental impact of your corporate travel and helps minimise your company’s carbon footprint.
• A sustainable business travel policy outlines guidelines to balance business needs with environmental responsibility, helping you boost your brand reputation and meet CSR goals.
• With business travel on the rise, adopting these practices will help you meet national carbon targets, reduce travel costs and be more attractive to potential customers yes, sustainability sells.
• Key strategies for more sustainable business travel include creating a sustainable travel policy, choosing green hotels and transport, reducing flights, promoting light packing, taking advantage of technology, tracking travel data and using carbon offsets as a last resort.

 

What do you mean by sustainable business travel?

Sustainable business travel refers to practices that reduce the environmental impact of corporate travel. This includes selecting eco-friendly hotels and transport options, minimising waste and reducing carbon emissions. The goal is to conduct business trips in a manner that is efficient and environmentally responsible.

 

What about a sustainable business travel policy?

A sustainable business travel policy outlines the guidelines and strategies you can adopt to make your corporate trips more eco-friendly. This policy might include choosing sustainable hotels, promoting the use of public transport, reducing flights and implementing carbon offset programs. 

The aim is to balance business needs with environmental considerations so your travel decisions bolster your brand reputation and contribute to corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals.

When you or your travelling employees book accommodation via Roomex, you can filter for sustainable options and integrate your travel policy to make it easier for staff to choose compliant, environmentally-friendly hotels.

 

Why is sustainability important?

With business travel volumes in the UK set to outpace 2019 levels in 2024, companies must act now to minimise their environmental impact. The UK has committed to an ambitious carbon strategy that aims for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Sustainability is becoming less of a choice and more of a necessity, and businesses behind the curve will soon start to lose out. 

Put frankly, you need to adopt sustainable travel practices to contribute to these national targets and reduce your carbon footprint.

 

What are the benefits of sustainable corporate travel?

It’s not just the environment that wins when you adopt sustainable business travel models, your business does too. 

• You’ll reduce your carbon footprint

By choosing eco-friendly transport options, such as using trains or electric vehicles, and booking sustainable hotels, your business can lower its overall environmental impact, demonstrating your corporate commitment to tackling climate change. 

• You can save money

Sustainability and travel can go hand in hand with cost savings. Opting for public transport or carpooling can be more economical than frequent flights or individual car hires, making your business travel budget stretch further. A CSR policy encouraging less frequent business travel will also save you cash. After all, it’s significantly cheaper to Zoom than to take the train.

• Enhance your corporate image

Sustainability sells. 84% of customers say that poor environmental practices will alienate them from a brand or company, while 78% of consumers believe that sustainability is important. By adopting and promoting sustainable business travel practices, your company can improve its corporate image and build customer trust. 

• Deliver healthier and more satisfying travel experiences

Reducing the stress of frequent flights by opting for more comfortable travel options, such as trains, can improve overall employee well-being. Happier and healthier employees are more productive and satisfied with their work. A win-win for everyone.

 

Tips for more sustainable business travel

Can travel really be sustainable? When you’re taking flights, cars, or trains, no. But there are plenty of ways you can significantly move the dial to lessen your impact on the environment and mark yourself out as a green business. Here are our top tips.

1. Develop a sustainable business travel policy

First things first, you need to write sustainability into your travel policy, and not as an added extra. This policy should outline the guidelines and strategies your company will follow to minimise the environmental impact of business travel. Sustainability should sit at the heart of your policy and inform every part of your travel decision-making process.

Case in point: PwC’s Thoughtful Travel Programme

Recognising that flights were the single biggest contributor to PwC’s carbon footprint, the company undertook a radical overhaul of its business travel policy.

Its Thoughtful Travel Programme puts sustainability first, encouraging employees to rethink whether they need to travel in the first place and to stay longer when they do travel combining multiple trips and purposes into one to reduce multiple visits. 

As a result, since 2019, PwC has slashed its overall emissions from business travel by 50% pretty impressive.

 

2. Choose sustainable hotels

Certified sustainable hotels often use renewable energy, recycle waste and have water-saving measures in place. Roomex simplifies this process with its smart filtering options, which help you find hotels that align with your position as an environmentally aware company. 

In the UK, you can also look for certification schemes including Green Tourism, Green Key, Global Sustainable Tourism Council and LEED.

 

3. Opt for green transportation options

Encourage employees to use trains, buses, carpools and electric vehicles where possible. Trains are the winner here. Recent research from the Rail Delivery Group across the top 100 business travel routes in the UK has shown taking the train instead of an electric car produces less than half the carbon emissions per person. Travel the same route on your own in a diesel or petrol car, and emissions skyrocket 15 times higher.

 

4. Reduce the amount you fly

As PwC found, encouraging employees to fly less will slash your company’s carbon footprint. Its Thoughtful Travel Programme, which focussed on reducing the quantity of business flights, eliminated more than 76% of the company’s air travel emissions. Encourage virtual meetings, and when air travel is essential, choose direct, economy flights to minimise emissions. 

 

5. Encourage employees to travel light

Lighter luggage means less energy is required for transportation, reducing emissions. To help, you can provide tips for efficient packing as part of your pre-departure briefings, or through your onboarding process.

 

6. Make use of technology to reduce travel

Business travel isn’t going anywhere 95% of people think face-to-face meetings facilitate long-term successful working relationships. But, while we don’t want to wipe out in-person events, we can reduce them. Promote the use of video conferencing and other digital collaboration tools for day-to-day catch-ups and only book in-person meetings when necessary. 

 

7. Track and analyse travel data

Monitoring travel patterns and carbon footprints will help you understand how to reduce your company’s environmental impact. By tracking travel data, you can identify areas for improvement and measure the effectiveness of your sustainable travel initiatives. 

Roomex’s carbon reporting feature comes into its own here. It allows you to keep up with emissions generated by your business travel accommodation bookings. The feature simplifies how you gather necessary data for compliance with the Carbon Sustainability Reporting Directive and helps you make more sustainable choices.

 

8. Implement a carbon offset programme

This one comes last because offsetting should always be a last resort. Reducing the overall quantity of carbon emissions entering our atmosphere is the priority. Only when you’ve put all the strategies in place to do that by flying less, choosing sustainable hotels, travelling by train and taking meetings virtually should you look at carbon offsets to mitigate the effects of your business travel

Choose which offset projects you invest in carefully, since many don’t live up to expectations and do little to reduce long-term planet-heating emissions.

 

Wrapping up

Sustainability doesn’t need to be difficult or costly, in fact, it can help save you time and money. Write it into the fabric of your business travel policy and a more sustainable model of corporate travel will become second nature in no time. 

Roomex makes it easy to integrate sustainability into your travel plans. With features like filtering for sustainable accommodation and comprehensive carbon reporting, we’ll help you stay on top of your corporate carbon footprint. Let’s cement your commitment to green business today.