World Wildlife Fund UK To Urge Business To Cut Flying By 20 Percent
The conservation charity WWF-UK—formerly Worldwide Fund for Nature—will launch next week a campaign called One in Five, aimed at helping British businesses and government agencies reduce their flying by 20 percent within five years.
Between four and six well-known companies are expected to commit to membership of the plan for the launch. For a joining fee and first-year membership of £5,000 plus a subsequent £750 annual membership fee, participants receive an accreditation logo followed by a new logo when they verifiably achieve a 20 percent reduction in flights. Upon enrollment, companies are measured across a range of data, including number of flights, top 10 routes, distances flown and cost of air travel.
They will then be required to supply data annually to assess progress towards their reduction goal. The data also will be benchmarked anonymously with other participants in the One in Five scheme, giving them a ranking of their success in cutting flights. There also will be an annual workshop, and participants will be given complimentary access to the Institute of Travel & Meetings' Project Icarus toolkit of advice on travel-related emissions reduction.
Companies will be able to claim the One in Five logo if they provide backdated data proving they already have achieved a 20 percent cut within the past three years. However, to ensure that businesses are not claiming success for temporary reductions made during the recession, WWF transport policy officer Jean Leston said their retention of the logo would expire after one year if their flight volumes rise again during that time. Furthermore, if businesses expand or contract their workforce by more than 20 percent, they are obliged to start the process again.
Although One in Five is launching at the bottom of the economic cycle, when companies might be looking ahead to higher rather than lower levels of travel, Leston is optimistic about its prospects. "There is a tremendous amount of interest because it so obviously helps introduce practices that save money long-term," she said.
The data assessment methodology for One in Five has been devised by the transport and regeneration consultancy JMP, which also will visit each member of the scheme to verify its information submission. Coincidentally, JMP is the author of a new report criticizing the U.K. government for failing to show leadership in sustainable business travel management.
The report, which said there is "little evidence to suggest that government understands the total financial, social or environmental impacts of employee business travel and commuting," was commissioned by U.K. government agency the Sustainable Development Commission. The SDC has responded by recommending the creation of a national policy lead for a sustainable travel initiative, significant improvements in data collection and management, and the creation in each U.K. government department of detailed workplace travel plans.
"There appears to be a policy vacuum with a lack of leadership and management of sustainable travel in government's own operations," said JMP's report. "As a result, we found public sector officials and suppliers were unsure of government's sustainability policy or travel targets.
"We found that departments were unable to provide information on the financial cost of travel or environmental impacts."