American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) has launched an integrated emissions-based carbon pricing tool.
The new solution will enable businesses to select a carbon calculation methodology to apply a carbon fee to their air travel.
Fees will be visible to travellers as they shop and can appear on their invoice. This will help companies to inform employees about their carbon impact, as well as corporate sustainability initiatives.
Businesses must pick a carbon methodology before putting a price on carbon using the new emission-based fee, a flat or categorical fee. They can then grow a fund for sustainability initiatives, such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), electric vehicles (EV) or research and development (R&D).
Clients can track carbon emissions specific to their flights at point of sale, create a self-sustaining fund for decarbonisation projects and help employees make more sustainable, economic decisions.
Nora Lovell Marchant, VP of Global Sustainability at Amex GBT, added: “Carbon pricing by way of business travel can help shift companies – and the aviation industry at large – towards a more sustainable future.
“[It] is imperative, but alone insufficient. We need to combine carbon pricing with decarbonisation. Making carbon more expensive must be combined with making clean more affordable.”
Pharmaceutical company Sanofi has used carbon pricing to spread the cost of its SAF investment and raise funds for sustainability projects.
Global Procurement Category Head Lucian Alexandru added: “Emissions-based carbon pricing enables us to combine economics, sustainability and technology to strengthen our business travel programme and boost funding to invest in decarbonisation initiatives such as SAF.
“With support from Amex GBT, we are closely aligning our business travel programme with company-wide efforts to reduce emissions, while also helping accelerate and prepare for a low-carbon future.”
