American Express Commercial Card launched in Europe on
Wednesday a carbon reporting system that it said enables travel managers to
measure the CO2 emissions of flights booked through the Amex card and also
suggests travel alternatives that would create fewer emissions.
The tool, called the Carbon Savings Account Manager, which
Amex abbreviates as Carbon SAM, has been launched in 16 European countries,
including Scandinavia and the United Kingdom, the markets that have shown the
most interest in environmental reporting. With regard to whether it might be
introduced in the United States, a spokeswoman said, "There is a
possibility of extending this, but no decision has been taken yet."
AirPlus International and Barclaycard previously introduced
emissions tracking tools in Europe, but Amex claims to take the idea further by
providing a list of lower-emission travel alternatives and using International
Civil Aviation Organization information to measure emissions based on airline,
aircraft, class of service, route and time.
The spokeswoman said the tool lists how much lower the
emissions would have been if the traveler had chosen, for example, an airline
flying a different type of aircraft or if they had flown directly instead of
indirectly. Other lower-emission options include flying in economy instead of
business class—as a higher weighting is attached to premium passengers because
their seats take up more space—or even if they were to fly off-peak, based on
the assumption that there would be less taxiing or holding time. In addition,
she said, Carbon SAM lists the emissions produced by rail travel on the same
route, if appropriate.
The card division's consulting services team developed
Carbon SAM over an 18-month period and is making the tool available to clients
for free. Amex has piloted the tool internally as part of the company's
commitment to reduce its carbon footprint of 2006 by 10 percent by 2012.