European travel programmes are ahead of the game when it comes to climate action, according to a new GBTA sustainability benchmark.
But overall, programmes still have a long way to go to reach full maturity on business travel emissions management.
Developed in collaboration with Accenture, the benchmark ranks the current state of climate action on a maturity score of 0-5, with 0 denoting ‘no activity’ and 5 denoting ‘leading practice’ action to mitigate business travel emissions.
As of 2024, the first baseline year for the initiative, the global sustainability maturity score across all industry sectors was 1.3 out of 5, putting the sector firmly in the ‘planning’ phase.
While the global score was 1.3, European travel programmes scored 1.7, significantly higher than North American programmes at 1% and Asia Pacific programmes at 0.7%.
“While acknowledging serious efforts are underway to manage business travel emissions, our Global Benchmark shows the stark need for significant acceleration in climate action,” said Delphine Millot, Senior Vice President, Advocacy and Sustainability, GBTA and Managing Director, GBTA Foundation.
The GBTA benchmark also showed that finance, consulting and technology sectors scored higher than average (2.0, 1.7, 1.5), while others such as manufacturing (0.8) and transportation/travel services (1.2) lag significantly behind.
It also found the size of travel spend is directly related to company sustainability maturity level. Smaller programs (less than US $5 million) scored 0.8 on average, compared to large programmes (more than US $100 million) who scored 2.5.
The GBTA research was conducted in September and October among 241 companies representing a cumulative business travel spend of over $14 billion.
It also found:
- The number one sustainability practice in travel policies is evaluating the necessity of the trip (79%), closely followed by encouraging or mandating economy class for domestic trips (78%)
- A majority of companies (62%) are tracking their business travel emissions, and an additional 14% are planning to do so within the next year. Public disclosure and reporting of corporate value chain emissions (scope 3), which includes business travel, is also picking up fast with 49% doing so and 14% planning to start.
- Only 20% have external reduction targets for their scope 3 emissions, including business travel. These companies are largely seeking third-party, independent validation of these targets (66%), in most cases by SBTi, the Science-Based Targets Initiative (60%).
- 68% of companies have sustainability features included in their corporate travel booking platform, and 22% of companies are looking to upgrade or switch to platforms with better sustainability features. The most common features included are carbon calculators for trips, information on more sustainable options, and rail booking availability.
- Only 12% of companies are currently purchasing Sustainable Aviation Fuel certificates as a way to compensate their business travel emissions within the value chain, spending on average $400,000 USD annually. However, the practice is set to double over the next year, with 15% of companies planning to be on the market for SAF certificates.
- Only 7% of companies have established internal carbon fees for their business travel programmes while 14% have set a carbon budget, with more planning to integrate these practices within a year (17% and 20%, respectively). The average internal price set on carbon is currently around $50 USD compared to the $75 USD per ton of CO2e required to reach 2030 climate targets.
Going forward, GBTA will conduct the Sustainability Acceleration Challenge every year to track industry progress on decarbonising business travel programmes.
