Green Travel
Travel smarter and reduce your carbon footprint.
Global warming is caused by a build up of carbon dioxide (CO2) acting like a planetary duvet and trapping heat in the atmosphere. You will have seen the media headlines about what could happen in our lifetime, let alone that of our children and grandchildren if we don't do something now. It's a fact of life that almost everything we do produces CO2 - from taking a business trip to boiling a kettle to driving a car. It's important to reduce levels of CO2 to combat climate change.
Our partners The CarbonNeutral Company are the leading climate change consulting and carbon offsetting business helping businesses and individuals to understand their carbon footprint and offering products and services to help them take action to reduce it. Business travel can produce a significant carbon footprint and many businesses and individuals are looking at ways that they can reduce it.
"Often over 25% of a company's carbon footprint can be attributed to travel. Reducing those emissions makes good business sense - for the climate, for the balance sheet and for reputation. Carbon management is increasingly part of the corporate strategy, companies need to know what their Carbon Footprint is and how to reduce this internally through business procedures and operations as well as externally through carbon offsetting. Scientists are telling us that big CO2 cuts are needed and as individuals we need to think about changes we can make during our working day as well as at home."
Sue Welland, Founder & Creative Director,The CarbonNeutral Company
Business travel is often essential for us to do our job however there are ways that we can reduce the amount of CO2 emissions that we produce. At a company level businesses can invest in technology such as video conferencing to reduce travel but there are also things that individuals can do to save CO2 as well. Altering how you currently organise your business travel will not only reduce the amount of CO2 produced and help save the environment but makes good business sense and could save you valuable time.
Using Whozintown to maximise the opportunity to combine several meetings in a single business trip is a very simple way to make an instant difference to your carbon footprint. By reducing just one long haul flight you will have already saved 1 tonne of CO2. When you consider that the average carbon footprint of a UK citizen is 9.51 tonnes CO2 you can see what a difference meeting smarter can make.
It is also possible to meet more significant targets of reducing CO2 emissions through external reductions i.e. carbon offsetting. By investing in projects that reduce the equivalent amount of CO2 you can balance your emissions to net zero and achieve a CarbonNeutral® position. Visit www.carbonneutral.com for more information.
Scenario 1 - US Trip
You are travelling to the Seattle region for 3 days to attend a Trade Show and possible meetings at the Microsoft campus. Either post your travel plans to the Whozintown (WIT) portal, or in your Outlook Calendar which will automatically populate WIT. Based on the preferences you have selected within WIT, existing or new contacts will be alerted via email or SMS about your forthcoming trip. Even contacts in other towns whom you request alerts to be sent to when you travel to the US (who may not be attending the trade show) will have visibility of your Seattle trip, giving them the option to re-jig their plans to coincide with yours. This enables you to maximise productivity whilst in the US thus lowering travel costs and reducing your carbon footprint.
Scenario 2 - European Trip
You plan to travel to Germany for a meeting with BMW in Munich on a specific date at the end of July. You have also been lobbying contacts at IBM Frankfurt for a meeting for some weeks and it appears they can only meet in Frankfurt early August. Once you post your travel plans to the WIT Portal, it alerts you to the fact that your IBM contacts will be at the IBM building in Munich late July, coinciding with your BMW trip. This now gives you the option to travel smarter by consolidating meetings into one location with less flights/expense whilst reducing your carbon footprint.
Scenario 3 - Asian Trip
You are travelling to the Asian Business Travel Expo in Beijing and allow 5 days for travel/meetings with some slack built in. You are also planning an Asian trip the following month to see customers/suppliers in the Banking sector in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. You post your Beijing plans into Outlook and WIT alerts you that your Banking contacts (new or existing) will be attending a Banking Conference in Beijing around the same time as the Travel Expo.
Whozintown has begun to populate the WIT Portal with Whatsintown - a list of the most relevant Global & Local Business Shows/Exhibitions across multiple industries, to increase the value and potential for its members. As a direct consequence of this broader exposure to Business events, you now have the option to connect with your Banking contacts in Beijing thereby reducing the number of Asian trips, the associated costs and carbon emissions.
Scenario 4 - Members travelling to your Town
You are planning a trip to Rome to see one of your customers but before you create your travel plan, WIT alerts you to the fact that your contact has already scheduled a trip to your town. You may also be unaware that potentially new customers are also planning to visit your town and as you have selected to be alerted when a specific Executive or anyone from a specific Company or Industry travels to your location, you now have the option to reach out to them. Both these scenarios enable visibility of who is coming to your town which means you may not now need to travel to Rome - thereby reducing cost and travel carbon emissions.
Scenario 5 - Colleagues
How often have you missed a colleague from your own company when they've been visiting your office or indeed while you travelled to their office/location?
WIT can help mitigate these circumstances.
By entering regular travel plans, interested parties in an Enterprise (team secretaries, travel managers, regional managers) will gain visibility of each other's movements which of course maximises time spent on site (productivity) and significantly cuts down on unnecessary travel costs and carbon emissions.
Scenario 6 - Colleagues
How often have you missed a colleague from your own company when they've been visiting your office or indeed while you travelled to their office/location?
WIT can help mitigate these circumstances.
By entering regular travel plans, interested parties in an Enterprise (team secretaries, travel managers, regional managers) will gain visibility of each other's movements which of course maximises time spent on site (productivity) and significantly cuts down on unnecessary travel costs and emissions.
10 tips to help you reduce your travel carbon footprint further
1. Look after your car - (personal or company car): Check your tyre pressure. Driving with under-inflated tyres decreases your fuel efficiency and the lifetime of the tyres.
Driving for 65 miles with your tyres at the correct pressure could save 1kg of CO2.
2. Watch your speed: Watch how fast you are travelling at: keep your speed at a lower level and be consistent with your speed. If you rapidly accelerate then this will directly increase the amount of CO2 emissions and you will also use more fuel.
Driving at 70mph will use up to 25% more in fuel compared with 50mph,
Driving at 85mph will use up to 25% more in fuel compared with 70mph,
Driving at 50-60 mph will minimise your CO2 emissions.
(Statistics from the Centre for Alternative Technology)
3. Don't dawdle: If you get stuck in traffic for more than a minute turn off your engine - but only if it is safe to do so.
Switch off your engine for one minute a day for a year and you will save 1kg of CO2.
4. Look at alternative greener fuel options: When you are purchasing your next vehicle you should switch from a petrol solution to a more fuel-efficient vehicle such as a diesel engine or an electric city car - these alternative vehicles will reduce your CO2 emissions. Longer term you will also save money through purchasing cheaper fuel.
A 1.4 litre vehicle for 50 miles per week fuelled on:
Petrol will produce 0.8 tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum,
Diesel will reduce this to 0.6 tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum and,
An LPG vehicle will reduce this further to 0.5 tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum.
5. Look at reducing the size of the engine that you drive: Vehicles with smaller engines are not only cheaper to purchase, save money on fuel but also help the environment by producing less CO2 emissions. Decreasing the size of the vehicle will directly decrease the amount of CO2 emissions produced:
A 2 litre petrol vehicle will produce 1.2 tonnes of CO2 compared to,
A 1.4 litre petrol vehicle which will produce 0.8 tonnes of CO2.
6. Long or short haul flights? Take a look at your business travel plans and see how you can improve them - can you reduce the amount that you fly through investing in video conferencing, plan shorter flights or schedule a number of meetings back to back?
By forfeiting one long distance flight you will save 1 tonne of CO2.
7. Should you fly or take the train? Depending upon your destination taking the train instead of flying could be an alternative - and think of all that extra work you can do on the train!
If 10 people from your business took 10 train trips instead of flying, 10 tonnes of CO2 would be saved.
8. If possible, join your company eco car scheme: Did you know that company cars represent 10 percent of the cars* on the road? However due to the high mileage travelling to and from business meetings they use more fuel and in return produce more CO2 emissions. Instead try and use a pool or hire car. There is evidence that people using their own cars for business typically use older cars and therefore these cars generate higher CO2 emissions. (*Energy Saving Trust).
9. Use a CarbonNeutral® Fleet or chauffeur solution: Have you considered using a CarbonNeutral fleet scheme or suggesting to your current fleet or chauffeur company to become CarbonNeutral? Some companies now grade each car according to the CO2 emissions and then if a car is chosen which is lower than the benchmark CO2 a financial contribution has to be made.
10. Use more technology within the workplace: Instead of travelling to a business meeting why don't you use video conferencing facilities instead. If your audience is not based in the same building or office and you are planning a conference or workshop then webinars are a good alternative.
After just 4 half-mile return trips you will have saved 1kg of CO2.
It is always possible to meet more significant targets of reducing a companies CO2 emissions through external reductions - i.e. carbon offsetting.
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