Sabre Corporation and Google have collaborated to use the Travel Impact Model (TIM) to calculate past emissions from business travel.
TIM is already used to display emissions estimates on Travalyst coalition platforms including Sabre, Google Flights, Booking.com, Expedia and Skyscanner.
The pilot programme involved a team of Google analysts using Sabre’s 2023 business travel data to calculate corporate travel emissions and recommend strategies for future reductions.
Google analysts looked at TIM calculations relating to flights and suggested CO2e reductions based on alternative flight options. Analysis revealed that focusing on the most polluting routes could yield the most significant impact.
Business travellers make up only 12% of airline passengers globally but are responsible for a higher proportion of emissions – in Europe, they account for approximately 30%.
Long-haul flights were identified as a key area for improvement. The TIM identified lower-emitting same-day alternatives for two-thirds of flights, including common routes such as Dallas-London and Dallas-Frankfurt, offering potential emission reductions of up to 10%.
Project findings will enable Sabre to help set realistic reduction targets and optimise travel efficiency.
Sabre intends to explore incorporating this capability into its agency and corporate booking tools so that customers can see more accurate emissions estimates from their past bookings.
GetThere, Sabre’s corporate online booking tool, integrated TIM emissions data last year. This enables corporate travel bookers, including Sabre’s employees, to view accurate carbon estimates for their flights during the booking process.
Jessica Matthias, Global Sustainability Director at Sabre, commented: “Taking responsibility for our own emissions, striving towards the most accurate methodology and working on innovative ways to reduce emissions alongside traditional methods are areas of focus for us.”
Sebnem Erzan, Global Head of Travel Sustainability Partnerships at Google, added: “Companies increasingly need to understand and report the impact of their business travel and we are delighted to work with Sabre to pioneer the TIM as a standard for real world corporate travel emissions disclosure.”
