By Steve Hartridge, published 17/06/20

American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) has launched a sustainability feature in its corporate travel and expense software, Neo.

It means search results for air and rail tickets can now be filtered in order of their carbon emissions.

The TMC says amid the pandemic crisis, travel managers have not lost sight of their sustainability objectives, alongside programme optimisation, cost control and duty of care.

A survey conducted by the Institute of Travel Management in May 2020 showed 96% of its travel buyer members said sustainability remained a top priority.

“Sustainable travel remains a top priority for the corporate community,” said Andrew Crawley, Chief Commercial Officer.

“We have spoken to our customers and travellers, and we share their desire to carve out the most sustainable path forward for our industry. The new Neo emissions filter lets travellers consider their carbon footprint.”

The launch of the new feature comes as GBT published its annual environmental, social and governance (ESG) report.

Last year, GBT became the first global TMC to offset 100% of its emissions from employee business travel and earlier this year it announced a goal to become carbon neutral across all its operations.

It is in the process of carrying out environmental impact assessment of all sites, tracking key environmental indicators such as energy efficiency with motion sensors and LED lighting, water savings via filtering systems, and waste reduction.

Si-Yeon Kim, GBT’s Chief Risk & Compliance Officer, said while the company is proud of its progress, there is still much work to do.