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Reducing the cost of business travel with a Sustainable Travel Policy

This document is also available as a pdf for download. 

Going Green; Global Warming; Climate Change; Action on CO2. Will Scotland enjoy a Mediterranean climate in 100 years time, or is there an ice age coming? These days it seems the environmental debate is seldom short of a slogan or headline grabbing piece of speculation.

With so much conflicting information and expert opinion about, there can be little wonder that many of us remain unconvinced about climate change. However, it remains inescapable that more and more humans are competing for less and less resources. We have to reduce waste, create efficiency and do more with less. Despite the mixed messages, within the sub-text lays the real and very serious issue. Sustainability.

In business, whether we run a one man band or a global enterprise, as we seek growth through what many are calling the toughest economic period to date, there is one compelling fact: greening our travel with a Sustainable Travel Policy reduces the cost of doing business. As such, we can say that it is an essential element of a strategic approach to securing sustainable competitive advantage in the long term.

Carbon doesn’t need to be taxing

The Climate Change Bill sets ambitious carbon reduction targets, and greening our approach to travel is vital if we are to shrink the carbon footprint of business. The direct cost of travel is increasing as ever spiralling energy costs reflect the difficult geo-politics of the energy industry. However, as we move towards the first major milestone in the carbon reduction calendar in 2020, indirect costs may also increase. Only a brave economist would bet against the government quite liberally applying the mantra ‘the polluter pays’ (with BIG taxes) as a method of modifying behaviour.

Going forward, a well thought out and reinforced Sustainable Travel Policy lets businesses take control of the carbon issue. This will help your business avoid the worst excesses of a tax system that has a significant part to play in clawing the UK’s economy out of the black hole that is the budget deficit.

What to consider in a Sustainable Travel Policy?

For many, the most important thing to consider is the impact that reducing business travel has on customer relationships. Most will find that once established, digital communication enables enough ‘presence’ to maintain relationships. But what happens in the case of new business? How important to sales people is face-to-face contact with prospective customers as they seek to close new business?

If we treat travel related to sales activity as ‘essential’, and road travel as a ‘necessity’, do we need to rush out and order hybrid powered company cars? We might be able to reduce the number of employees that routinely commute to the office. But what effect does encouraging more home working have on productivity?

Another option might be to encourage more cycling and take advantage of the Cycle to Work scheme for commuting. But what does that mean in terms of locker and washroom facilities for cyclists and secure cycle parking that does not cause obstruction?

What does a Sustainable Travel Policy look like?

So what does a Sustainable Travel Policy look like? On the next page we have included an example that should give you a good idea. It doesn’t need to be overly complicated. If anything, it needs to be as simple as possible. Our example is not exhaustive or definitive; every business will have its own specific points that it will want to bring out; each will have its own definition of ‘essential’ and ‘necessity’. It is intended as a starting point for formulating a Sustainable Travel Policy that meets the needs of your business*.

The other thing to note is that a Sustainable Travel Policy is just one part of an organisation’s overall environmental policy. This may include the use of ISO 14001, an internationally accepted standard that sets out how to put in place an effective Environmental Management System (EMS). This standard specifies a process for controlling and improving an organization’s environmental performance.

Sustainable Travel Policy -an example

Fict Itious & Company - Sustainable Travel Policy Statement

We accept that travel is a part of our business but we also recognise that as part of a strategy of sustainable competitive advantage we must only undertake business travel that is a necessity.

Maintaining face to face relationships with our customers and suppliers is important; however much routine travel can be eliminated as there are many digital communications tools at our disposal that allow ‘presence’.

Travel, especially by road, has an environmental impact in terms of CO2 emissions, noise and congestion. We also are acutely aware that inefficient business travel results in significant and unnecessary costs to our business.

This is a set of policy guidelines that will allow us to secure our business as much as possible against the effects of rising atmospheric carbon and any taxation that may arise from the carbon that we generate in the course of operating our business.

We will endeavour to:

1. Reduce car travel by only making essential business journeys

2. Encourage the use of cars with smaller conventional engines or hybrid vehicles

3. Ensure company cars comply with environmental specifications

4. Incentivise car sharing and multiple occupancy

5. Ensure company car benefits encourage environmentally responsible behaviour

6. Provide information on reducing the environmental impact of car travel

7. Ensure the availability of video and teleconferencing, and other advanced digital communications such as web 2.0 tools

8. Promote and incentivise cycling as an environmentally friendly alternative to other modes of transport

9. Offer flexible working arrangements

10. Offer interest free loans for bus and train season tickets and provide public transport information

11. Encourage best practice that employees use the lowest carbon option for business travel

12. Use management information from our travel expenses claim system as a tool to reduce our carbon footprint across the business

This policy will be implemented and supported by the HR, IT and business travel policies of the business. Our primary objectives are:

1 To reduce the environmental impact of business travel and staff commuting

2 To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of travel and reduce unnecessary costs to the business

Sustainable Travel Policy - What next?

Now you’ve got your Sustainable Travel Policy drafted, what next? It is important that green travel is not seen as a faddy exercise that falls by the wayside after a month or two. If ‘sustainability’ is about changing society’s attitude to waste and excess, then sustainable travel in business is about changing the culture of your organisation to travel only when necessary and then by the lowest carbon method.

A good way of making a Sustainable Travel Policy ‘stick’ culturally is to reinforce the policy at the entry points where employees input data into your organisation’s expenses claim system. Purpose-built software applications can remind claimants of policy guidance as they use the system. Another feature that helps to modify behaviour and effect cultural change is carbon tracking, the ability to present travel costs in carbon (kilograms of CO2) as well as monetary terms.

Measure, manage and reduce your carbon footprint

The very best systems, like Online Expense Management also provide real-time capability and the ability to check the carbon footprint of each journey before travel is undertaken, helping employees to choose the lowest carbon option, across road, rail and air travel. Monthly or annual carbon reports can be run, presenting the opportunity to incentivise good Sustainable Travel Policy behaviour by measuring performance against target for reward.

For the business this enables the accurate calculation of the carbon footprint from travel across the entire business, and the ability to measure, manage and reduce the carbon footprint. Management information that can easily be extracted from a good expenses system enables the presentation of hard data to support and provide clear evidence of the organisation’s pro-active approach to Corporate & Social Responsibility issues.

Online Expense Management

Sage has chosen to work with award-winning provider of expense management software, WebExpenses. This solution is easy to use, flexible to configure, easy to implement and rich in functionality. It allows organisations to quickly reduce travel and entertainment spending plus the costs of processing expense claims.

About real-time carbon tracking with Online Expense Management

As part of the core product, Online Expense Management enables business travellers to calculate their carbon footprint using up-to-date, government approved carbon and environmental data. The software has been purpose built to enable organisations of all sizes to measure, manage and reduce the environmental and monetary cost of business travel.

* Disclaimer: Sage and WebExpenses accepts no liability for the Sustainable Travel Policy contained in this document. It is included as a fictional example for information purposes only. You should seek the approval of your legal advisors for the actual wording of Sustainable Travel Policies that you wish to implement.