WORDS MOLLY DYSON
BBT HOTLIST 2020
INDUSTRY INFLUENCERS
GRETA THUNBERG FEW WILL DENY THE Swedish activist has firmly placed climate change – or climate crisis as it’s more commonly referred to – on everyone’s agenda. It’s also hard to believe she only caught everyone’s attention in late 2018, aged just 15, taking what began as a school strike (outside her country’s parliament building) and turning that into an internationally recognised movement. Last summer, Thunberg set sail from Plymouth and crossed the Atlantic to New York to attend the UN Climate Action Summit, where her speech criticised some world leaders for failing to address environmental issues. At December’s UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid, she said she felt despite the strikes over the past year, “nothing has happened”. However, climate change was voted the biggest challenge facing the travel industry in 2020 in the Business Travel Show annual buyer poll – and considering her impact in such a short period, her influence on the industry will likely spread further in 2020.
LEVEL UK LAUNCHED AS LEVEL WOMEN in March 2017, the organisation made the bold move to operate under the new name of Level UK in 2019 to highlight the importance of including all genders in its goal to promote parity and balance in the corporate space. Founders Sam Cande and Ami Taylor now work alongside Louise Kilgannon and Sonia Michaels and an advisory board of 12 men and women from different backgrounds to raise awareness of gender issues, such as the fact that around 80 per cent of leadership positions are held by men. The not-for-profit organisation encompasses a LinkedIn community of more than 550 industry professionals. In 2019, Level UK ran three events with around 120 attendees to continue the conversation and drive change. Cande told BBT that remaining independent allows the group to highlight the work that others have done in the space, including the Gender Equality Collective and Women in Travel CIC.
EASYJET
ONE OF EUROPE’S LARGEST regional carriers took a bold step in the sustainability space by announcing that it would voluntarily offset the carbon emissions of all of its flights out of its own pocket. But easyJet admitted that offsetting is not the ultimate solution for saving the planet. The airline’s group markets director Thomas Haagensen told attendees of the GBTA Conference in Munich that “the ultimate objective should be to decarbonise flights, but that’s not the reality yet.” Meanwhile, easyJet will continue working with Wright Electric to develop electric aircraft capable of operating commercial flights and has also signed an agreement with Airbus to conduct research on hybrid and electric planes. With global climate protests set to up the ante in coming years, easyJet’s brave tactic could prove to be an influence on how other airlines talk about their own sustainability goals.
QANTAS WHILE THE WORLD’S ATTENTION IS ON reducing carbon emissions, it would be remiss to ignore the headway Qantas has made over the last 12 months on Project Sunrise, its programme to research ultra long-haul flights to Australia. The airline operated three research flights at the end of last year from New York and London to Sydney using a Boeing 787-9 with fewer than 50 passengers, researchers and crew. The purpose was to monitor the wellbeing of those onboard and to determine the best schedule to maximise rest for crew members. The Qantas board is now expected to vote on the project. Even if Qantas decides to go ahead, it could be some time before such flights are commercially viable. Airbus and Boeing have pitched aircraft capable of operating 19-hour flights with a full load of passengers. Such direct connections between major business hubs could prove popular with passengers.
buyingbusinesstravel.com
2020
JANUARY/FEBRUARY
89
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