SUSTAINABILITY THE GREEN CARD
CONSPICUOUS BY ITS ABSENCE
After all but disappearing from the corporate travel agenda when recession struck, Roger Gardner asks why sustainable travel is now only sluggishly returning as a priority
THE UK has been disappearing recently under a mass of mani- festos, pledges, commitments and promises. Various groups have been lobbying political parties and they in turn have been lobbying the electorate. It is interesting to see what is included – whether we believe it will be delivered or not – and what is given little or no attention. Sadly, one area that gets only a fig leaf of attention to cover political embarrassment is the environment. In recent decades the attention
paid to sustainability has tended to follow the fortunes of the economy. Good times bring out the environmental initiatives and, during the downturns, anything that adds to the cost base without immediate returns gets quietly sliced. It was therefore with some sadness that I could glean next to nothing on good intentions about sustainability at February’s Business Travel Show in London. The stands of the bigger players
gave it little, if any, attention and only a few niche players, whose services are based upon environ- mental excellence, stood tall. Leafing through brochures did
little to provide reassurance. That is not to say that TMCs do not offer an environmental dimension to their offerings (as they do), it is that, although the travel sector has been more buoyant of late, nearly everyone seems to have overlooked the growing environmental imperative. The recent 2014 report of the
82 THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes for frightening reading. It makes clear that mankind’s carbon trajectory is a bad one – "continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems". The message in this heavyweight
and consensual science report is unequivocal: substantial reductions in emissions are needed over the
would surely have featured. But it matters that it is way down the priority list as grasping the environmental nettle is the sector’s passport to responsible growth. It would have been good to
see the sector take a lead on carbon offsetting and put the political parties under pressure. Moving from voluntary towards mandatory scheme adoption
“Good times bring out the environmental initiatives and, during downturns, anything that adds to the cost base without immediate returns gets quietly sliced”
next few decades if global warming is to stand a chance of being held below two degrees Celsius by 2100. It is tempting to treat this as a ‘mãnana’ topic but if action is not actively taken when times are better, what chance of it ever happening? So, coming back to priorities
put forward at the election, sustainability is a notable omission in the manifesto of the Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC). Assuming that the messages put
forward by the trade body are a reflection of company priorities, CSR is way down the corporate agenda. It is still a ‘live’ issue and were the manifesto more comprehensive, sustainability
would send a powerful signal yet cost relatively little. Even challenging others to
follow the lead of many travel service providers on excellent energy and carbon reduction initiatives would be a valuable contribution to the direction of the industry. As the economy recovers and business confidence returns, it is surely incumbent upon the business travel sector to demonstrate that it is a leader in thought and practice on sustainability. A new political era beckons and the environment and our collective futures – including the freedom to travel as we wish – cannot be treated as a mere afterthought.
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