II TECHNOLOGY OBSERVATORY: y 9.- Environmental Policy

Date : 27/04/2016
Author : Forum Business Travel

In the last two years there has been a significant evolution in the environmental policy of companies. The percentage of those that monitor the pollutants generated by their corporate travel has increased by twelve percentage points in the last two years, from 31.1% in 2013 to 43.14% in 2015, according to the findings of the II Observatory on Technology.

Companies obtain this information mainly from travel agencies, and although the impact on the environment is still not a relevant criterion when making a reservation, in just two years its importance has increased significantly.

Environmental policy focused on corporate travel is gradually increasing its relevance in companies with a presence in Spain. If in 2013 31.1% of the companies surveyed monitored the pollutants generated by their travel, today 43.1% do so.

The companies that pay most attention to this issue are those that invest the most in travel: 53.2% of companies with budgets of more than one million euros per year measure their environmental impact. Corporations with global travel policies, centralized decision making and a higher proportion of travelers among their employees also stand out in this section.

Information on pollutants comes mainly from travel agencies (84.9%), while 10.0% of the companies participating in the survey use measurement systems developed internally. This is particularly true of those with a global policy and those with annual travel budgets in excess of ?1 million.

Travel service providers tend to provide little information in this regard, with only 2.5% of companies using them to calculate their environmental footprint.

Overall, environmental impact is measured in relation to air services (79.9%), followed closely by car rental (7.5%) and rail (2.5%).

In any case, the information received on the environmental impact of travel is not yet a determining factor in booking decisions, although its importance has grown considerably compared to the 2013 figure. For 60% of respondents, the environmental impact influences, on a scale of 1 to 5, at 2.25, when two years earlier it barely did so at 1.9.