Ovation Travel To Provide Carbon Offsetting Service
Next week, Ovation Travel will become the first U.S. travel management company to help business travel buyers offset their travel-generated carbon emissions. Ovation has been using the program internally for a month and has begun rolling it out to two clients, the company told BTN yesterday.
Such travel management companies as American Express have provided carbon-calculating capabilities for individual clients, and Carlson Wagonlit Travel in the second half of the year plans to provide point-of-sale functionality to calculate and report carbon emissions. Manhattan-based Ovation, however, will provide a way not just to calculate, but also to offset emissions as well as provide free reporting services to customers.
"We are going to be monitoring and measuring their travel, providing this data to Carbonfund.org, and working with Carbonfund to handle the billing issues," said Ovation executive vice president Michael Steiner. "It will resonate well for companies that have corporate social responsibility on their radar screen for 2007. This is a very tangible and viable opportunity for them to offset their carbon emissions. We're going to be doing the work as an additional service that we are going to be providing to our clients at no charge. "
Steiner said Ovation would be recommending this approach to its fellow Radius members. "A couple of them in Europe already are looking at this program as well," he said. "I believe that Portman in the U.K. already has such an initiative underway."
Ovation chose Carbonfund.org after looking at several different solutions for what they do with the funds on behalf of the environment and the cost. Carbonfund invests the money in a variety of renewable energy projects, such as reforestation, energy efficiency programs, wind farms and solar homes. Its carbon calculator uses averages and statistics from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Agency to estimate usage.
After the initial carbon calculation, Ovation provides monthly reports about business travel to Carbonfund, which are analyzed according to travel patterns, and whether is primarily short-haul or long-haul traffic. Carbonfund then produces a number at the end of every month or quarter representing the amount that a company would need to invest to offset its carbon emissions.
To get some idea of the range of costs, Steiner estimated a company with a $5 million air spend annually would pay $10,000 to $15,000. In return, such companies gain the knowledge they are making the world a better place, as well as being able to tell their business associates they are doing so, Steiner said.
"That really is the entire benefit," Steiner said. "We're committed to helping with this issue as a business. It is a service that organizations that have global travel are going to be looking at seriously in 2007. It's a challenge not just for businesses, but for the world. We're doing our part. We feel passionate about this issue. This is Ovation putting our money where are mouth is in offsetting our own business travel emissions and helping our customers, if they are interested in doing it as well."