Sustainable Business Travel, Hot Topic For 2023?

Sustainability is increasingly important in our business world, and that obviously includes business travel. The biggest challenge here? How can I, as a company, continue to book essential travel while still maintaining a sustainable travel policy?
Sustainable travel is all about making the right choices in order to reduce the negative impact on the environment and our surroundings. As a business, a number of benefits can be realized, such as:
 

           - Reducing the environmental impact of travel and giving the company a green reputation..

           - Cost savings by reducing business travel or choosing more sustainable modes of transportation.

           - Enhancing the connection with the local community and improving relationships with customers and partners.

           - Improving staff loyalty as they feel supported by the company in making responsible choices.

           - Strengthening the innovative power of the company, because more sustainable solutions are often also more efficient solutions.

With a few simple changes, you can easily make a difference as a company. These 5 tips will get you on the road to implementing a more sustainable travel policy within your organization.:

1 - Choose Direct Flights.

Choosing a direct flight for your business travels can help reduce the overall carbon footprint of the trip. Direct flights emit less carbon dioxide per passenger than flights with layovers or connections because they do not require the use of additional fuel for takeoff and landing at intermediate airports. As an added benefit, it also saves you a lot of time.

2 - Schedule Multiple Appointments Per Trip

Scheduling meetings consecutively, without returning home in between, can be an environmentally friendly way to conduct business travel. This method reduces the total amount of travel, thus lowering the carbon footprint. Additionally, it can also save time and money.

3 - Choose Public Transport

While a taxi, Uber, or rental car can provide easy transportation, have you considered using public transport as a way to get around? The train or subway is a more environmentally friendly and often faster way to get to your destination. You also don't have to deal with traffic congestion during rush hour.

4 - Choose train as an alternative to plane

On shorter distances, the train can be a more sustainable and practical choice compared to flying. For example, a round-trip flight from Brussels to London in economy class results in 190 kg of CO2 emissions, while taking the train on this route has a much lower impact of just 0.5 kg of CO2 emissions.

It's often a lot cheaper as well! 

5 - Act As If You Are At Home

Small actions can have a big impact, even when traveling for business. Simple measures such as avoiding single-use plastics, turning off lights when not needed in hotel rooms, reusing towels, conserving water, eating locally sourced food, reducing the thermostat, carrying a reusable water bottle, etc. can all make a difference.

At Uniglobe Axon Travel, we are also actively working to reduce our impact on the climate. To achieve this, we are working with SUStour on a sustainability program. Together with more than 600 other travel companies from 35 European countries, we are taking important steps towards a sustainable travel industry.

Together for a better future, that is what we strive for!