Is your employer having the conversation about cutting back on flying? While activist Greta Thunberg’s speeches around the globe have gained headlines, so, too, has her decision to shun air travel in favour of train and boat journeys — no matter how difficult. With flying being one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, many people are following Thunberg’s lead and rethinking the way they travel.
Business travel in the spotlight
But it’s not just about holidays — business trips are a big contributor to the problem, and discussions are taking place at companies up and down the UK about flying less and “clean travel” options.
The value of the global business travel market is forecast to increase from around £1 trillion (€1.2 trillion) in 2017 to almost £1.3 trillion (€1.5 trillion) by 2023, according to an Allied Market Research report from November 2018. Will large numbers of businesses really start to rethink the need to jet across the Atlantic from the UK to New York to set up a deal, or fly from London to Dublin for a meeting?
The often exorbitant cost of train travel means that it might be difficult to argue against a £40 (€48) return flight from London to Edinburgh versus £240 (€285) on the train, for example. And what about long-distance commuting to work? Many passengers are weekly commuters hopping on flights to and from mainland Europe. “With more and more companies making their own ‘net zero’ pledges, business travel is bound to come under the spotlight before long,” says Cait Hewitt, deputy director of the campaigning organization Aviation Environment Federation. “We’re starting to get inquiries from the business travel-buying community (corporate travel buyers) to discuss what they should be doing about the impact of climate change on travel.”
Starting to take action
Some companies have already taken action. London-based Lawson Conner, a company offering compliance services and software to financial firms, says that it has reduced business flights by 75 per cent over the past two years. “I used to fly quite a lot — I’d probably take about eight flights a month, travelling to Singapore and Hong Kong,” says Gerhard Grueter, co-founder and managing director of Lawson Conner, which employs about 50 people in the UK. “That’s now completely cut.” The business has a “one person” international travel policy, according to which only one member of staff is allowed to attend global business meetings.
The reduction in flights has, in part, been possible only because the company has offices around the world. “If clients are being served locally, if someone wants to speak to me, I don’t need to fly to New York — it’s not necessary,” says Grueter.
Two years ago, the global engineering professional services company WSP set itself a target in the UK to become carbon-neutral by 2025. This has meant reducing business flights in the UK by 9 per cent and 16 per cent worldwide. In 2017, it banned flights under 250 miles and introduced an initiative that encourages non-travel and low-carbon alternatives to driving and flying. “When our staff book travel online, a pop-up asks whether they need to travel or could they use Skype,” says Claire Gott, UK head of corporate social responsibility (CSR) at WSP. “Also, our admin staff have been trained to challenge any travel. The first choice is by rail.” There’s also an internal carbon levy of £50 (€60) a flight on all domestic air travel, to be increased to £200 (€240) a trip. This money will be invested in CSR activities.
Sabine Zetteler, owner of the London-based communications agency Zetteler, is on a mission to reduce flights taken by her company of ten people. Zetteler says her agency has clients all over the world, so in some cases, flying can’t be avoided, but for short trips, it plans to find more carbon-efficient ways to travel. For instance, in April 2019, five of the team travelled by train to Milan Design Week. “It took 12 hours longer and cost a few hundred extra financially, but it was liberating, bonding and important for us to try,” says Zetteler. As for this year, the company plans to visit fewer places and share the carbon offset charge for international meetings that can’t be avoided.
Universities are also looking at what they can do. Sion Pickering, social responsibility and sustainability projects coordinator at Edinburgh University, says business travel is responsible for a lot of the university’s carbon emissions. “In 2018, during term time, staff and students travelled more than 66 million business miles, emitting more than 18,000 tonnes of CO2e (carbondioxide equivalent),” he explains. “This is approximately 20 per cent of our carbon emissions, and our third-highest source after emissions from the electricity and gas we use to heat and power our campuses.” The university has started discussions about whether the number of travellers can be reduced, and whether additional value can be found by making trips longer, so that multiple engagements can be combined. “By helping departments to understand how much they travel, we have started to increase awareness,” says Pickering. This year, the university plans to introduce measures to reduce emissions from business travel.
Rewarding climate-conscious employees
Some businesses have joined Climate Perks, a new programme that works with climate-conscious employers to offer at least two paid “journey days” per year to staff who travel to and from their holiday destinations by train, coach or boat instead of flying. In return, employers receive accreditation “in recognition of their climate leadership”. More than 30 companies have signed up so far, according to the UK charity Possible (formerly known as 10:10 Climate Action), which launched the programme. “When it comes to cutting plane travel, the solution must be based in behavioural and social change because there is no real technological solution for cutting aviation emissions,” says Emma Kemp at Possible.
Although it recently joined Climate Perks, the UK-based ethical insurer Naturesave launched a similar initiative more than a decade ago for trips to Europe. “In recent years, we have seen it grow,” says marketing manager Nick Oldridge. “Over the period we have run the policy, a quarter of staff have taken advantage of the benefit each year, resulting in an additional one or two days’ annual leave per person.” While he admits there is an associated cost, there are definite benefits. “Those who use the scheme have reported they enjoyed their holidays more and rediscovered the pleasure of travel,” he says. “They are also proud of being able to demonstrate to their friends and relatives that they have an employer who takes environmental issues seriously.”
One employee taking advantage of the scheme is finance manager Abha Wells, who has used it for trips to Scotland and Belgium during the past two years. “Not only was it better for the environment, but we were also able to take our bikes, which made it even better. Now the climate emergency has become so critical, I am planning to take more trips overland using the extra days from our policy.”
Offsetting is not the answer
While carbon offsetting is offered by airlines and others, Cait Hewitt of the Aviation Environment Federation says this isn’t the answer to reducing emissions. “Offsetting might look like a cheap and easy response to the climate change impacts of business flights, but while a well-run scheme will do some good elsewhere in the world, it does nothing to solve the problem of aviation emissions.” “There are no green flights on the market today. Rather than offsetting, businesses should look hard at how to cut back on flight numbers, change staff expectations about flying and then maybe put the money they have saved towards research and development into genuine solutions for zero carbon aviation, whether that’s zero carbon fuel, electric aircraft or technologies for capturing and locking away CO2 from the air once it’s emitted.”
© Guardian News & Media 2020