Sustainable business travel: Reduce your CO2 footprint on the road

Business travel is on the rise again. Following the coronavirus-related slump, the German business travel market recovered last year with a 55% increase compared to 2022. Around ten million Germans traveled on business in 2023. This also had a noticeable impact on the carbon footprint. In many companies, business trips are one of the biggest sources of climate-damaging greenhouse gases. Companies that want to position themselves as sustainable would therefore do well to demand and promote environmentally friendly travel.

Mobility mix as a key factor

If you take a closer look at sustainable travel, you quickly realize that it encompasses more than just the classic business trip. Sustainable travel starts with the journey to work and today includes not only the company car, but all mobility options - be it e-bikes, bicycles, scooters or public transport! But the focus is not only on the business trip itself. Environmentally friendly travel always goes hand in hand with responsible tourism, choosing hotels that are as sustainable as possible and effectively offsetting emissions. There are also many recipes for success that determine how effectively the carbon footprint of business trips can actually be reduced. The following six points provide valuable tips to help companies achieve this important goal with as few hurdles as possible.

1. make sustainability a travel policy

The basis for sustainable travel is a coordinated travel policy with detailed regulations. The first and most important point is always the question of whether a business trip is really necessary. Replacing it with a video conference is probably the most effective sustainability measure, which is also often the better choice for cost reasons.

Clear guidelines are also important, such as prohibiting air travel within Germany and recommending the use of public transport such as buses and trains wherever possible. If air travel is unavoidable, compensation programs can be made mandatory in the travel policy. Incentives for the workforce can anchor environmentally friendly travel more firmly in the company. For example, the strategy of rewarding those employees who keep their CO₂ emissions below a certain level on their business trip has proven successful.

2. choose destinations with responsible tourism

Sustainable travel starts with choosing the right destination. If this can be chosen flexibly, sustainable regions and communities are ideal. One guideline for this is the Sustainable City Index from the consulting company Arcadis. According to this index, Oslo, Stockholm, Tokyo, Copenhagen and Berlin are particularly characterized by responsible tourism. London, Seattle, Paris, San Francisco and Amsterdam, which are also ahead in terms of climate neutrality, are in second place.

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3. book sustainable hotels

When choosing accommodation, the focus on sustainable hotels also promotes "green" travel within the company. The guiding principle should always be official sustainability certificates such as the well-known EarthCheck seal, the Biosphere certificate, Green Globe or the EU Ecolabel. Every business guest can also promote sustainability by not changing their towels every day and by using water sparingly.

However, climate protection is not only an issue when booking a sustainable hotel, but also when organizing events at the destination. More and more organizers are advertising "green" events that have as little impact on the environment as possible and conserve natural resources.

4. minimize and offset air travel

Responsible tourism always goes hand in hand with choosing a means of transportation with the lowest possible emissions. Choosing the train instead of the plane, for example, has a huge impact on the carbon footprint of a business trip. This is particularly useful for short and medium-haul trips. For example, a train journey within Germany produces only one sixth of the carbon dioxide emissions caused by a domestic flight.
For long-haul routes, there are now a number of services for carbon offsetting. In addition to the price of the flight ticket, the business traveler pays a contribution to support climate protection projects. What is important here is the realistic calculation of the climate impact and the quality of the projects supported. One guideline for this is the "Gold Standard", which is considered one of the strictest seals and is recommended by the Federal Environment Agency.

5. bundling trips

Bundling business trips is a particularly effective measure when it comes to sustainable travel. This is why more and more companies are now tending towards longer business trips: The longer stay on site and the grouping of business appointments are replacing multiple trips to one region.

The annual business travel analysis published by the German Travel Management Association (VDR) shows a significant decline in day trips in particular. The duration of business trips is continuously increasing and averages 2.4 days across Germany. Around 25 percent of business trips even last four days or more. The proportion of one-day business trips has fallen significantly, particularly in large companies with more than 1,500 employees. Overall, around 45% of business trips are completed without an overnight stay. Before the coronavirus pandemic, this proportion was still 70 percent.

6. climate-friendly travel at the destination

Even at the destination itself, the choice of means of transport has a major impact on the carbon footprint of the business trip. If you want to promote environmentally friendly travel in your company, you should therefore opt for alternatives such as public transport at your destination. Car sharing is also an option. These vehicle fleets have lower CO₂ emissions and are more energy-efficient than an average car. It may well be a smaller vehicle that emits on average only half the amount of carbon per kilometer that a larger four-wheel drive vehicle emits.

7. use tools for sustainable travel

Sophisticated software solutions for travel management can do much more today than "just" book flights, hotels and trains or record travel expenses. Many solutions are also designed to calculate the environmental footprint of a trip or traveler and suggest alternatives and compensation options (emission offsetting). The CO₂ calculation ensures transparency and makes environmentally friendly mobility more attractive for employees.