Sam Cande, chief executive, Cande Consulting
It’s all very well saying that you want to be a more sustainable business and that you believe in purposeful travel, but let’s face it, if you are in the travel industry your focus is to get people travelling. So how can you be sure your company is not just greenwashing and really is doing good for the environment and being more socially responsible?
I recently trained to become an assessor for CSR-Accreditation, a global organisation that accredits companies on the four pillars of environment, workplace, community and philanthropy. It’s been eye-opening seeing the efforts that companies are going to in order to ensure they are running a truly sustainable and responsible business. One application I viewed included more than 100 documents to show what doing good in business looks like.
We should all be taking our impact on the environment seriously. The planet is in a truly worrying position – there are only 8.5 years to make a difference and you should be planning to get to net zero by 2030 or we are all going to be in trouble.
To make a real difference you are going to have to get as much buy-in from stakeholders as possible. This really should come from the top, with backing for a sustainability and CSR strategy built into your brand’s core values.
Why? Because not only will you be protecting our planet’s future, but you’ll be enhancing employee (and customer) engagement, potentially reducing operational costs, and you'll be a more attractive employer when recruiting. The fact is, the sooner you act, the more resilient and ultimately successful your business will be, whilst simultaneously taking responsibility for your organisation’s impact on the planet.
The travel industry has really woken up to sustainability over the last year, but I can assure you that we are far behind many other industries, where measuring carbon emissions is second nature.
If you take the built environment for example, you will find most companies have sustainability and CSR teams of three or four people, yet many companies in the travel industry are signing up to planting trees and trying to work out how they can calculate their emissions using very outdated carbon calculations.
Any measurement looking at a point-to-point trip is going to be way off the mark if you are not taking into consideration the journey to get to the airport, the size and type of the plane, the cabin class a passenger travels in, the hotel they are staying in and the number of days they are there for.
All companies, no matter how large or small, should be looking at making sure your offices are energy efficient, that you are recycling, that your supply chain is sustainable, and that you look at waste management and water saving.
There are some fantastic organisations that can help you with your carbon measurement and an array of offsetting options, and if you can’t afford to employ an expert within your business, reach out to a CSR or sustainability consultancy who can help.
Visit BTN Europe's Sustaining the Future report for more information on reducing your environmental impact and to see what steps other companies are taking.