In an effort to ease compliance to the U.K.'s 2008 Climate Change Act, the country's Department for Transport and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs published guidance and released a calculation tool for reporting carbon emissions from government-related business travel. Corporations also are considering that tool as a means to report their business travel emissions as Parliament may mandate that such calculations be included in corporate annual reports.
Released during the same month that U.K. government departments must begin publishing the full details of their carbon emissions resulting from business travel, the guidance--which facilitates measurements for air, car, bus, ferry, rail and motorcycle--serves as a crucial document, according to Jonathan Green, an associate at JMP Consultants and former DEFRA lead on sustainable business travel.
"Government has recognized that calculating emissions from travel and transport is more challenging, so they commissioned us to develop this guidance to assist organizations to identify where to sort information relating to work-related travel or business travel and commuting to and from work as well," Green said. Calculating emissions from employee commutation to and from work is not a stipulation of the 2008 Climate Change Act, but could be the next step, according to Green.
"HM Treasury has committed our central government departments to include sustainability reporting and carbon reporting--alongside their financial returns--that includes business travel. That clearly doesn't include commuting," Green explained. Work-related travel, including both business travel and commuting, can account for 50 percent or more of a non-manufacturing organization's footprint, according to the government document.
While it is not required to so, the National Health Service began reporting its commuter carbon footprint in an attempt "to align the health agenda and the carbon agenda," Green said.
Provided to departments via the DEFRA website, the calculation tool processes data that "should fall in line with the greenhouse protocols" mandated by Parliament, according to Green. "DEFRA and the Department for Energy and Climate Change are saying that this is the guidance and this is how you should report your emissions."
The guidance outlines ways in which data can be sourced to generate consistent carbon reporting, including information from travel agencies and other travel suppliers. "Information on work-related travel could be sourced from internal management information and reporting systems, which could include the finance and accounting system, asset register, travel and subsistence forms, expense systems and bespoke travel databases, spreadsheets or files," according to the document.
It also suggests that "when negotiating contracts with travel suppliers, request that management information on fuel consumption and distance traveled is provided."
Some emission-reporting proponents "are too hung up on getting [business travel carbon emissions] down to the gram," Green continued, "but we need to better understand the calculations of emissions to create a footprint and use our procurement in a smarter way to carry travelers, and I don't think we are doing that."
The guidance excludes hotel emissions calculations because DEFRA is "not currently in a position to report emissions from hotels on a per-property basis effectively or distribute that information effectively," Green noted. "The hotel industry needs to engage in a better conversation about how it can meet demand for available room night data. Hotels are not currently in the position to do that, and those that are may be providing very generic information. The buying community and the hotel community and the distribution community actually need to understand what one another wants."
Potential Implications For Corporations
The independent Committee on Climate Change is scheduled to deliver by April 2012 to U.K. government officials a set of recommendations on whether corporations also should be required to report carbon emissions from business travel, according to Green.
"If the pressure on corporates comes in to report on carbon-related travel business and commuting, then there is a system and a structure in place that enables them to do that," Green explained. "It may not be perfect to do that initially, but at least it provides that starting point from which to take action and can be refined as you go along. The Committee on Climate Change will look to make a recommendation on whether businesses should engage in mandatory carbon reporting from April 6, 2012."
U.K. corporations "have now come to grips" with reporting their carbon emissions from energy consumption, Green said, but for business travel, reporting is "a little bit cloudy."
The article originally was published in Business Travel News.