MYSTERY BUYER
Green ambitions
We travel buyers can only do so much – then sustainability has to be down to suppliers…
the equation? The answer, surely, is: probably not. I’ve done all I
can to improve my company’s eco-friendliness. Partly, that’s because we need to be seen as a caring organisation. Partly, it’s
to keep tabs on our travellers’ carbon emissions. To be honest, I wasn’t that interested – most of our travel was domestic and by train, so I reckoned we were about as ‘green’ as we could get. Then I changed jobs and inherited – among other things – a new TMC and a new emissions monitoring ‘solution’ that tells me how much damage I’m doing to the global environment. I’ve only been in post for five or six years, and frankly I’ve lost count of the impacts my travellers have – it seems that every time we approve a booking, somewhere a dolphin dies. Duty-of-care is uppermost on most
S
travel managers’ agenda. We have to ensure – quite rightly – that our travellers are safe and secure wherever they go. Do dolphins (or red squirrels, dung beetles, or fruit bats – pick your own endangered species) come into
62 BBT January/February 2018
OME YEARS AGO, my TMC account manager tried to sell me a new tool which, she promised, would enable me
because I personally believe I have a responsibility to make even a small difference. Partly, it’s because there is usually a cost saving involved.
BALANCING ACT
I’ve introduced a number of changes to company travel policy. Train is always preferable to air (although, being based in the north, Eurostar isn’t really an option). I constantly question whether a trip is really necessary, although I’m usually told that a simple phone call won’t do. I advocate the use of public transport wherever possible, not least to save on outrageous parking charges. In short, I try to balance my company’s needs (as opposed to ‘wants’) with our sustainability ambitions. But there comes a point when we, as
travel managers, can do no more. Yes, I can insist that the train is a greener, more cost-effective mode of transport for an Edinburgh-London trip, but that doesn’t work for Dubai or Singapore. Our preferred hotels are chosen on the basis of cost and convenience, not on whether they use energy-saving light bulbs.
It’s reached the point where it is down
to our suppliers to get their act together, and in my view, they’re showing precious little sign of doing so. Most hotel groups have adopted the ‘towels in the bath’ mantra, so if you want newly laundered towels every day (and, let’s be honest, who does this at home?), you know where to dump them. But, meanwhile, extra key cards keep the lights and TV on in empty rooms, unfathomable air-con systems blast out icy air so you open a window to warm up… I could go on. The real culprits, however, are airports and airlines. Airports should do much more to provide express shuttle services from their nearest railway stations, rather than building ever larger multi-storey car parks.
APATHETIC AIRLINES Although the airlines argue that commercial aviation has only a tiny impact on global warming (and pollution in general), they are the ones that really could get their act together, if only for their own reputations. Do they work with each other? Every week, it seems, we read of some
carrier that has successfully flown from A to B using cooking oil or some sort of plant derivative, but then we are told that either it’s too expensive or that it can’t be produced on a commercial scale. Then it all goes quiet until the next trial flight is completed, with the same old excuses. There doesn’t appear to be any common purpose. Individual airlines are mostly working with relatively small research companies to develop alternative fuels that subsequently turn out to be impractical. Why don’t they pool their resources and come up with something that works – and saves money – for all?
I’m still keeping track of my company’s travel emissions as part of our wider corporate programme to improve our environmental performance, and I think we’re doing pretty well. What I can’t see is how we are going to do better unless the supply- side makes a far greater effort. We all want to be ‘greener’, but we seem to have reached a point where a much greater degree of co-operation is required. Tracking carbon emissions isn’t the same as cutting them.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148
