On the way to climate-friendly business travel with BCD Travel

Unternehmen/Institution:

BCD Travel Germany GmbH

Mobilitätsschlagworte:

Geschäftsreisen, Mobilitätsbudget, Reiserichtlichtlinien

Teilnehmende:

approx. 500 in Germany

Zeitraum:

Continuous initiative

Beschreibung:

As a leading provider in the business travel sector, we are constantly striving to develop innovative solutions to make our contribution to environmental protection while meeting the needs of our customers.

By focusing on the fundamentals of making business travel more sustainable, we enable clients to contribute to initiatives that reduce their impact, inform their travelers of more sustainable options and manage the sustainability impact of their program, as well as measure, track and report progress.

Our measures are aimed at actively implementing the travel guidelines of our key accounts, particularly with regard to the existing requirements for avoiding domestic flights. We take a holistic approach, which includes both the online booking platform and personal consultations with our experienced travel consultants.

In cooperation with our customers, we offer to point out alternative sustainable transport options to travelers when they book online. This can include, for example, the use of rail connections instead of domestic flights. Our travel consultants are also trained to recommend sustainable transportation options and highlight the advantages of these options during personal consultations. It is important that travelers receive the best possible support when booking so that they are well informed and have a good experience when choosing a sustainable transport option.

A key component of our concept is the measurability and documentation of the CO₂ emissions generated by the chosen means of transportation. We ensure that this data is recorded and analyzed in accordance with the requirements of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. This enables our customers to closely monitor their carbon footprint and take targeted measures to reduce their environmental impact.

We also support our customers with additional expertise if required.

Here are three examples:

1) Our sustainability experts at our consulting company Advito can assist with various initiatives that go beyond business travel optimization.

2) Our partnership with Belmoto promotes the implementation of sustainable, flexible and cost-optimized mobility concepts.

3) Our partnership with various providers in the area of sustainability offers additional solutions via our Marketplace.

We are convinced that our concept not only helps to reduce the environmental impact of business travel, but also offers long-term benefits for our customers and society as a whole. We also support our clients by looking beyond environmental impact, helping them integrate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion best practices into their travel programs – such as digital accessibility, diverse traveler support and inclusive policies.

By actively engaging our customers and integrating sustainability principles into our business processes, we strive for a sustainable mobility transformation that brings both environmental and economic benefits.

Veränderung

Figures from the BDL show that the number of seats available on domestic German flights in the 2024 summer season has shrunk by a total of 47% to 53% compared to the 2019 summer season. Some customers are also seeing a trend towards the use of direct flights and a shift from Business Class to Economy. Our corporate customers receive corresponding evaluations as part of their CO₂ emissions reports. Preferred flight, hotel and car rental providers are also increasingly being selected according to sustainability criteria.

We’re aiming to build a movement for sustainable travel that empowers and engages both our customer’s travelers and our people to embrace sustainability on the road and at home.

We provide our clients with access to emissions reporting through our reporting platform DecisionSource, as well as integrating air CO₂ emissions estimates at the point of sale and connecting our clients to more sustainability services and technologies through our Marketplace, such as accurate reporting through GATE4 and quality carbon compensation through goodcarbon, as examples.

By focusing on the fundamentals of making business travel more sustainable, we enable clients to contribute to initiatives that reduce their impact, inform their travelers of more sustainable options and manage the sustainability impact of their program.

Industry advocacy and thoughts leadership is key We regularly share insights on our social channels and BCD blog to guide our clients in addressing sustainability in corporate travel. Our influence in the industry helps current and future BCD employees know that a career in corporate travel can make a positive impact on how we’re tackling the climate crisis. Examples include Sustainability's More Than Just Being Green, Beneath The Hype and Innovative Nature-Based Solutions.

We continue to help our clients navigate how to best implement sustainable business travel strategies through our Connections with BCD Travel podcast. Notable episodes addressing sustainability include:

• Sustainability - It’s more than being green, it’s in our DNA, with Olivia Ruggles-Brise, Vice President of Sustainability.
• HOT TAKE - Advito’s Sustainable Collaboration Practice with Erin Singleton, Senior Director, Marketing.
• Digital accessibility - Weaving DE&I into travel technology, with Yvette Bryant, Senior Vice President DE&I, Hannah Kahn, Senior Director, Product Marketing, and Yanell Guillen, Advito Consultant.
• Women in business travel - What you need to think about, with Carolyn Peterson, CEO of BCD marketplace partner Maiden Voyage, and Hazel Smith, BCD DE&I council member
• Celebrating Neurodiversity Week with Yvette Bryant as well as Robert Shen and Sandra Kaspar from United Airlines.

We generate reports to provide our clients, travelers and other industry stakeholders with valuable information to help them address some of the key challenges in building more sustainable business travel programs. For example, last year we surveyed more than 100 travel buyers and almost 1,800 business travelers to gauge the importance of environmental sustainability in business travel and published our findings in the Sustainability in Business Travel report.

The report explores the current sustainability priorities, challenges, opportunities and needs of travel buyers and travelers, including the sustainable travel program, stakeholders’ and suppliers’ sustainability efforts, communication about sustainable travel, sustainable travel options encouraged by employers and much more.

BCD researchers uncovered significant gaps in levels of knowledge, action and commitment when it comes to sustainability in business travel. While 82% of companies have sustainability goals in place, only 45% have targets for sustainable business travel. Furthermore, only 20% of business travelers are aware of their company’s sustainable travel goals. More than half of the travel buyers we talked to felt sustainable travel options cost too much. Buyers also pointed to challenges like traveler education, a lack of standard measurement approaches and definitions, and having the right tools, e.g., online booking tools supporting carbon budgets.

Was macht Euch zum top grünen Arbeitgeber?

Holding ourselves to high standards

Our employees want to have confidence that we're creating a workspace that considers our impact on the environment. This is one of the reasons we continue to seek external validation and certification of our processes. We communicate this extensively to both our employees and our customers, so that they know as a company we’re holding ourselves accountable to these standards.

As an example, BCD has received a fifth consecutive platinum rating from EcoVadis, the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings. This milestone not only confirms our commitment to sustainability for our employees, but also reinforces our reputation as a valuable, sustainable partner for our clients.

The EcoVadis assessment considers sustainability practices in environment, labor and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement – four key areas that are continuing to grow in importance for corporations, employees, and global societies.

With this rating, we again maintain our position in the top 1% of the 130,000+ assessed companies in over 180 countries across more than 220 industries. EcoVadis also rated us as ‘Leader,’ the highest category for the Carbon Management Level, which forms part of the assessment. This carbon management solution is integrated with EcoVadis ratings to engage suppliers and drive decarbonization across the supply chain.

We also maintain 100% coverage of our ISO 14001 and 45001-certified environment, health and safety management systems across our majority-owned markets, enabling us to monitor, document, and improve our environmental impacts and the health, safety, and wellbeing of our people.

As examples, as part of this system we provide recycling facilities and promote waste reduction wherever possible, as well as promote minimizing the use of paper in our offices and responsibly handle IT equipment, recycling end-of-life items and donating reusable ones to charities through local schemes where possible.

BCD has a science-based target to reduce our absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 35% by 2030 from a 2016 base year. We were the first global TMC to have our science-based target validated by the SBTi in 2022.

We’ve achieved a 74% reduction in the Scope 1 and 2 emissions associated with our offices since 2016. In 2023, we measured our full carbon footprint, including Scope 3 emissions, which account for 91% of our total footprint. This data will drive our future goals.

We're also investing in renewable electricity across our majority-owned offices. Our aim is to be 100% renewable globally by 2030. We have started by focusing on Europe where in 2023 we were powered by 59% renewable electricity. We expect over 78% of our electricity in Europe to be from renewable sources by the end of 2024.

Managing our business travel

It's important to think about how we demonstrate our commitment to reducing our impact in all aspects of employee experience with BCD - and travel and meetings is part of this approach. Last year we underwent an analysis of our global travel to identify carbon reduction opportunities, as well as the broader impact of travel – i.e. water consumption, traveler wellbeing and productivity. This analysis included identifying the most efficient routes, the best existing aircrafts, potential CO₂ savings on our frequent routes and opportunities to shift to high-speed rail.

We’re also offering employees the opportunity to lease a bicycle through JobRad, as an alternative to buying a bike, with tax deductions to leasing rates. This serves as a popular way to promote sustainable commuting.

Addressing eco-anxiety as a responsible employer

When it comes to environmental sustainability, we recognize our responsibility to address this issue in a sensitive way. We design all employee engagement messaging around sustainability to empower employees to take action rather than making them feel overwhelmed or guilty.

Using these principles, we implemented a month-long wellbeing campaign addressing eco-anxiety. This included tips on how to use the environment to help employees feel balanced, practical guidance for how to cope with eco-anxiety and access to useful resources from wellbeing experts. We ran wellbeing sessions that allowed employees to discuss their concerns, share ideas for how to live an eco-friendlier life and connect with global colleagues on this topic.

Using Carbone 4’s platform, we also ran workshops with our employees guiding them through a tool to calculate their own personal carbon footprint by breaking down their days, lifestyle and habits. We used the sessions to explore the climate challenges we face today in a non-judgmental, collaborative and fun environment, as well as helping them feel empowered that their action matters. The sessions provided a great opportunity to share experiences with other participants about low-carbon actions.

Going beyond carbon

We use a broad definition of sustainability that encompasses issues such as wellness; diversity, equity & inclusion; nature and social impact, as well as climate action. So not only do we position ourselves as an employer who wants to reduce our environmental impact, we want to increase our positive social impact too. Some of the ways in which we do this include:

Social impact:

We currently support 50 projects in 25 countries through our Making a Difference program, positively impacting young people in our local communities.

Human trafficking awareness:

We’re deeply committed to raising awareness about human trafficking. Our efforts, driven by our human trafficking awareness committee, have included supporting our partner A21’s education project in Cambodia, participating in the A21 Walk For Freedom, achieving a 94% completion rate on our ‘Don’t Look Away’ training for employees globally and more.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:

From building a new internal People Insights dashboard to undertaking a global gender pay equity analysis and expanding our DE&I initiatives, we’re making meaningful progress in creating a more inclusive and equitable workplace.

For more information, please refer to our 2024 Sustainability Report.

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