Users of Amadeus’ Cytric booking tool will be able to switch on eco.mio’s nudge and incentivisation capabilities from 21 May following an API integration with the sustainability specialist.
It is the first such integration for eco.mio which until now has only been available as a browser extension for users of Cytric and other booking tools including Concur, Egencia and Onesto.
Eco.mio co-founder and CEO Katharina Riederer said the integration will enable the company to work with a more diverse range of customers.
“Ninety per cent of the time customers are happy with browser extensions but there’s ten per cent – mainly the larger corporates – who say a ‘browser extension is ok security-wise, but we really prefer an integration’,” Riederer told BTN Europe. “Amadeus were really keen and said there was a lot of interest in our solution.”
The Berlin-based company promotes greener travel options, incentivises and rewards users for making more environmentally friendly choices, and can provide emissions information via a choice of data standards.
“We are bringing nudging incentives and education into the online booking tool to lead the user to a more sustainable booking option. Emissions data alone doesn’t change behaviour because it’s not tangible enough. It doesn’t tell a story,” said Riederer.
She said the company is not targeting the “Greta Thunbergs of the world” at one end of the spectrum, nor “the Donald Trumps at the other”, but “everyone in between who is aware of sustainability but needs the right information and right nudges to help them change their travel behaviour”.
Before switching the API integration on in Cytric, eco.mio will work with the corporate to customise functionality and take their historical data to help tailor messaging. “A user won’t see a message that just says ‘please take the train instead of the plane’, it’ll be more like ‘hey, 80 per cent of your colleagues take the train on this route’,” Riederer explained.
Customers can also select their preferred data standards from the likes of Atmosfair, Thrust Carbon, Gate4 from Advito or VDR’s own standard in Germany.
While updates to eco.mio via the Cytric integration will coincide with Amadeus’ release cycles, users of the browser extension will continue to access upgrades whenever the company pushes them out.
Riederer said eco.mio will pursue further integrations with the major players in Germany, such as Concur and Egencia, and that corporates already using its browser extension solution include the likes of Roland Berger, Uniper, Adesso and Kienbaum.