Report highlights lack of interest in sustainability from senior managers
by Linda Fox
Only one third of corporates have travel policies that promote sustainable tourism, according to a new study.
The results of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives and technology company KDS survey revealed a further third said schemes were being developed.
But the policies appear to be just lip service with 20% of respondents saying their companies did not encourage staff to use travel providers with lower carbon emissions or an environment charter.
The report also revealed a lack of interest in carbon emissions from senior management and only 20% of respondents said travel departments were expected to produce a carbon emissions report for the executive team.
Environmental issues in general were of low priority compared to other travel concerns with 81% of respondents citing employee security as high priority followed by 77% saying cost control and only 20% of those questions said environmental sustainability of high priority while 45% ranked it as low priority.
In addition, the report showed no appetite to reduce business travel in order to cut emissions with less than a quarter of respondents saying they had been encouraged to cut down on their journeys.
The ACTE/KDS survey was carried out in December and January on more than 200 travel managers and business travellers around the world.