SPONSORED CONTENT
BBT EDITOR’S LUNCH
DIRECTION CHANGE OF
BBT readers dined at the Royal Automobile Club last month for an Editor’s Lunch, sponsored by Lufthansa. On the menu: climate change, air fares and modern travel programmes
G 52
UESTS NOTED THE EDITOR’S LUNCH was coincidentally held during the Extinc- tion Rebellion climate change protests in central London; some walked past crowds that held up “No fly” banners. Like the protesters, our travel managers were seeking answers, too; looking for solu- tions to make their own travel programmes more sustainable, while distribution tech- nology – including NDC – was also debated. For the first time, the lunch format in- cluded a guest speaker, with Robert Stevens, director of partnerships at ClimateCare, sharing his perspective on travel. ClimateCare works with companies and governments to battle climate change by financing low carbon projects, protecting natural environments and helping organisa- tions to reduce their own footprint. “All of you have a carbon footprint,” Stevens
said. “No company can have zero. Business travel is one of the most difficult to reduce because it involves flying, but it’s also business critical. It’s easier to buy renewable energy for your offices and reduce the footprint with ground travel. As such, it’s an element we work with corporate clients on the most.” He asked how many people around the table received carbon reporting from their
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019
TMCs, with just a few raising their hands. When he asked if anyone had a green travel policy in place, one travel manager in the construction sector replied they had just been asked to create one, which had been prompted by the company’s environmental team. “But we don’t know where to start, so we’re talking to our TMC,” she said. Another manager commented: “The chal- lenge I have from a distribution perspective is that certain aircraft are greener. There is nowhere that is displayed, or can be dis- played, from a cost or choice perspective.” Andreas Koester, Lufthansa sales director for the UK, Ireland and Iceland, highlighted the airline’s recent launch of Compensaid – which is a B2C platform that takes into account carbon emissions emitted by air- craft, factoring in engine type, aircraft type and distance of journey. “Passengers can pay to offset by paying for sustainable aviation fuel, which is 80 per cent less CO2 than normal fuel, to be used on a plane within the next six months, or a reforestation project in Nicaragua,” he said. After one buyer asked if the airline could simply increase its air fares to carbon offset “without anyone noticing”, Koester said Lufthansa was about to announce a new
initiative: “If you have a European corporate fare, as of next year we will offer a fare where CO2 emissions are offset, for all of your travels. And we’re not increasing the fare. “There’s obviously flight shaming by the Greta movement… we’re taking responsi- bility. We have our own programmes, like Compensaid, which any traveller can do, but if you have a corporate travel agreement in Europe, your carbon footprint will be offset.”
ON POINT
The conversation also veered into the use of loyalty points. One travel manager at a US software company said her firm had built up so many PartnerPlus Benefit points, they struggled to redeem them. “Can we apply the points to offsetting?” she quizzed, with Marco Willa, Lufthansa’s general manager, sales UK, Ireland and Iceland, replying that ClimateCare was, in fact, a partner in the programme, where points could be re- deemed towards projects. For now there was no way to automatically use them against Lufthansa’s own offsetting scheme, but it was noted as an interesting possibility. Another manager said: “We need to consider policy. How do we change it so there’s a pricing tolerance, so if Lufthansa
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