Emma Eaton is travel commodity manager, UK and Ireland, Siemens
Emma Eaton is travel commodity manager, UK and Ireland, for Siemens PLC. Emma will be speaking at Business Travel Show Europe on a panel session entitled Buying social – make your travel programme a force for good. The show takes place 29-30 June 2022 at ExCeL London.
Your session at Business Travel Show Europe is called Buying social – make your travel programme a force for good. Can you tell us more about ‘buying social’?
Buying social is about redirecting our corporate spend to suppliers that have a social purpose. Social enterprises are organisations that redirect at least 50 per cent if not 100 per cent of their profits into good causes, such as actively helping homeless people, long term unemployed people, disadvantaged children, and many more.
How can travel managers go about sourcing these suppliers?
When trying to source these types of suppliers, it can be a bit tricky if you don't know where to start. I would recommend an organisation called Social Enterprise UK who Siemens engaged with at a very early stage to understand who the most relevant suppliers for each of our commodities would be.
With travel the options are limited. Directly for instance, there are only a couple of hotels currently and they're both in the London area, but the travel and hospitality industries are perfectly placed to source from social enterprises, due to the kinds of goods and services available from them, such as tea, coffee, wine, beer, snacks, bathroom supplies... the list just goes on and on. I have therefore been working with my key suppliers, such as airlines and hotel chains, to spread the word about social enterprises and encouraging them to build these kinds of organisations into their own supply chains. I then asked for progress about that in our tender questions.
How important is it that the travel industry becomes more socially responsible?
It's not just the travel industry. Every industry has a duty to become more socially responsible as part of the ESG (environmental, social and governance) focus. So it's not just focusing on the environment; the people side is such a huge element of ESG. And by the nature of travelling, we're reaching parts of the world, near and far, where communities may not have as much privilege as perhaps we do and we must be very conscious of that. We have the power to do more good, so therefore we mustn't ignore it.
Why is Business Travel Show Europe such an important event for travel buyers?
This will be my third Business Travel Show. Each one has been different so far. It's a brilliant opportunity to stay up to date with the latest trends and opportunities in business travel, especially in a post-Covid world. In my experience, the key contacts have changed so much in travel – it’s been particularly hard hit and so it's a great opportunity to engage with the new contacts that you'd need to move forward with.
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