Seasoned road warriors know how to navigate airport security effortlessly and get the most out of their frequent flyer miles. However, when it comes to saving the planet while travelling, many of us still have a lot to learn.
Business travel can be a burden not just to jet-lagged business travellers, but to the environment as well. Each trip generates CO2 and can swiftly ramp up a company’s carbon footprint. By applying some basic environmentally-friendly principles, business travellers can reduce, reuse and recycle while travelling.
Among the measures you and your company can adopt to become more Environmentally-friendly is ensuring you position sustainability as a central component of the travel policy and identify carbon-offsetting travel suppliers.
Identify Environmentally-friendly hotels which are actively taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint by using flow-restrictive shower heads, low-flow toilets and linen programmes that reduce waste.
A further measure would be to consider hotels that are strategically located to attend the meetings and conferences at your destination. This will allow your company to avoid additional transport costs in-destination as well as have a positive impact on the environment.
When it comes to flights – which are by far the biggest corporate travel carbon culprit – consider smarter air choices such as non-stop flights without layovers or pack light to reduce the weight of the plane as much as possible. Technology is making it even easier to fly green. Electronic travel documents and mobile boarding passes are just a few examples to avoid printing out travel paperwork.
Another fun way to be more environmentally-friendly is to add a few days of bleisure onto your corporate trip. Not only will this help you take the stress out of your business trip, it’s also a great way to reduce your carbon footprint by taking one trip instead of two separate trips for business and leisure.
Although travel will always have an impact on the environment, travel buyers and travellers can make a difference by adopting a few simple more sustainable business travel practices. Work with your ASATA travel management company to identify some of the ways in which you could together help to curb your carbon footprint.