There's all the talk about the environment, the good sustainable resolutions... And then there's the the reality of habits in the business world. According to a study conducted by Emburse at United Kingdom - and spotted by BTN Europe - the gap is still far too wide. The spend optimisation specialist surveyed a thousand employees and 254 employers to decipher their concrete actions to reconcile "business travel and the famous "sustainability. If the results published on 14 July are anything to go by, there is still a long way to go to make sustainable development a top priority for the company and its passengers.
Admittedly, the study does reveal "a desire for more environmentally-friendly travel options". But in practice, only 16 % of British business travellers would prioritise sustainable development when planning their trip. Emburse finds that sustainable development policies are integrated in 71% of cases... But only 37 % of these companies actively apply these policies when booking and approving travel expenses. More than a quarter of companies (27 %) would even have reduced their investments In the face of the rising cost of doing business. And some British companies seem to have abandoned the field of eco-responsibility. In fact, a quarter of employers (25%) have simply not implemented a sustainable development policy for business travel. And 6 % have no plans to move forward on this point...
It's easy to see why sustainable travel is struggling to find its way into the traveller's booking process. When it comes to organising their trip, very few people have made the environment their main criterion of choice... For example only one traveller in six makes sustainable development their number one priority. Cost-effectiveness remains the priority (31%), ahead of convenience and accessibility (27 %) and even miles. In fact, loyalty and reward programmes (21%) are unfortunately ahead of eco-responsible considerations (16%).
But mobile professionals seem ready to make an effort. They are simply waiting for their employers to get involved. The Emburse study estimates that 71% of employees would like their employer to do more to encourage sustainable travel. And 76% of travellers would choose a more sustainable mode of transport if their employer offered financial programmes or incentives.
For Jeroen van VelzenThe evidence is clear: "we can't just carry on with business as usual when it comes to emissions". Emburse's SVP Travel & Mobility insists: "Companies and travellers should strive to reduce their carbon footprint. It is promising that more and more organisations are introducing guidelines and policies relating to sustainabilitybut these data show that there are still still a long way to go before it becomes a priority" .
For Jeroen van Velzen, education will be the key to ensuring that people make informed, and therefore responsible, reservations. Travel managers could strictly enforce their company's policies to help meet carbon targets, but this heavy-handed approach risks alienating travelling employees. By informing travellers of the impact of their journeys in easy-to-understand terms - such as the number of homes that could be powered by the energy used on a trip - much higher levels of compliance can be achieved. Employers need to provide employees with the tools to make smarter decisions, and employees need to use this information to plan more environmentally friendly trips. We need to go beyond merely paying lip service to environmental issues, and turn good intentions into concrete actions."says Jeroen van Velzen.
