on many routes are also factors. Many business travellers would no longer consider flying from London to Manchester, Paris and Brussels, and rail operators are now eating into airlines’ share of Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow traffic too. Alternatives to travel, including
teleconferencing and webinars, are also playing a growing role, but there remain many hurdles for business travellers wanting to go green. Coming up with reliable carbon data on hotels and meetings venues is still the biggest challenge.
ON THE AGENDA The accommodation and meetings sectors will be a key area with the relaunch of Project ICARUS this year. This education and recognition programme for businesses taking an environmental approach to travel was launched by the Institute of Travel & Meetings (ITM) in 2007, and has been adopted by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA). Project ICARUS is now gaining far
greater resources, says GBTA Europe managing director Paul Tilstone. He is optimistic that the green agenda has survived many companies’ clamp-down on costs, with many questioning the need to travel at all. “If companies were serious about cutting carbon before the recession started, then they have seen that cost cutting goes hand-in-hand,” he says. “But for companies who were just tinkering around the edges, carbon saving has gone down the agenda in the fight for survival. In 2011 it seemed to be coming back up the list of priorities, but I don’t know if this will still be the case in 2012. “With Project ICARUS, we reached the point where there were limitations in what we could provide in the UK. Now it has been licensed to the GBTA, which has the resources to take it to the next stage and is putting together advisory boards all over the world.” A GBTA research poll on whether
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new technologies are reducing the need to travel shows 37 per cent of respondents saying teleconferencing is having that effect, 44 per cent saying webinars are reducing travel, and an impressive 55 per cent saying the highly specified telepresence is replacing the need to travel. “These technologies are now well
developed, and as reliable as getting on a plane when it comes to possible faults and delays,” says Tilstone. “Virtual worlds are also having an
APD – THE GREEN TAX THAT ISN’T
THERE IS STILL a widespread assumption that the UK’s air passenger duty (APD) goes towards green projects, when it is simply a revenue earner for the Treasury. An industry-wide campaign to stop further increases in APD has fallen on deaf ears, and long-haul premium travellers, in particular, face above-inflation increases from April this year. Economy travellers to the US will see APD increase from £60 to £66 from April, while premium travellers will pay £132
impact on meetings and exhibitions, but not changing the behaviour of the individual traveller.”
BUYING POLICIES Despite his generally upbeat assessment of the green agenda, a survey of 252 buyers by the Business Travel Show finds that 68 per cent do not have a green buying policy in place. Of the buyers who don’t have a policy, only 19 per cent were planning to introduce one, with 12 per cent feeling it is not economically viable, and 37 per cent saying it is just not a priority. London’s Business Travel Show is staging a masterclass for buyers called
(currently £124). For the most distant countries, including Australia, tax rates will increase to £93.50 in economy and an eye-watering £187 in premium. Travellers on private jets will have to
start paying APD from April 2013. With the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) due to introduce a genuine ‘green tax’ this year, ABTA – The Travel Association is lobbying for the cost of this to be offset against APD. ETS is expected to raise £2 billion in taxes each year by 2015/16.
Sustainability – where to now? on February 8. Event director David Chapple says: “Whether you are five years into the ‘greening’ of your travel programme or set to introduce an environmental dimension for the first time, travel managers need a lot of help on this challenging journey.” Tilstone adds: “The fact that one
third have a policy is higher than I would have expected, as companies were really just getting to grips with the subject as the economic crisis hit. I am not surprised that the results show the environment is not a priority when survival is the name of the game, but clever