The corporate travel industry has "much work to do" to meet net-zero carbon commitments, with maturity levels of sustainability programs still averaging near the bottom end of the spectrum, according to a global benchmarking initiative published by the Global Business Travel Association Foundation on Monday.
The benchmarking, based on responses collected in September and October from 241 travel managers and sustainability professionals, gave programs a maturity score on a five-point scale—with a 0 denoting no activity and a 5 denoting leading industry practices—across the categories of travel decisions, emissions tracking, supplier engagement and decarbonization. Respondents averaged a score of 1.3 on that scale, which is between the "planning" and "starting" stages.
European respondents and those with global travel programs on average had more mature sustainability programs, with scores of 1.7 and 1.6, respectively. North American programs averaged a maturity score of 1, and those in the Asia/Pacific region averaged 0.7.
Maturity was proportionate to program size in the benchmarking, with respondents who had more than $500 million in annual travel spend averaging a score of 2.8. Those spending less than $5 million on travel annually, by comparison, averaged a 0.8 maturity score.
Of the four areas in the study, respondents are most mature with emissions tracking, with respondents averaging a score of 1.9 in that area. More than 60 percent of respondents said they track their business travel emissions, and an additional 14 percent said they plan to do so.
In terms of travel decisions, more than two-thirds of respondents said they include sustainability features in their corporate booking platform, and an additional 22 percent plan to do so. Of those who include features, about two-thirds said they include a carbon calculator, information to help choose sustainable options and rail booking options.
Just under 40 percent of respondents said they include sustainability considerations in their travel policies, and 32 percent plan to do so. The most frequent considerations included were evaluating the necessity of business trips and requiring economy class for domestic trips.
Carbon budgets and fees, however, each were deployed by only 7 percent of respondents. An additional 17 percent said they plan to levy a carbon fee, and 20 percent plan to implement a carbon budget.
In the area of supplier engagement, just over a third of respondents said they use climate criteria in supplier selection, and 22 percent said they plan to do so. About half of respondents said they have or plan to incorporate sustainability clauses in supplier contracts, though only 6 percent of all respondents had defined clauses with improvement requirements.
Decarbonization was the least mature area for respondents, with an average score of 0.7. Only 12 percent of companies, for example, currently are compensating for emissions via purchase of sustainable aviation fuel certificates, though an additional 15 percent plan to join that market next year.
The GBTA Foundation compiled the benchmarking data as part of its Sustainability Acceleration Challenge, which it co-developed with Accenture. It plans to conduct the challenge annually to track progress and encourage participating companies to improve their score each year.
The challenge "is a great way for companies to take tangible action in the areas where they are less mature, or to push the boundaries on industry-leading practices in areas of high maturity," Accenture global travel and aviation sustainability lead Jesko-Philipp Neuenburg said in a statement. "The shared learning can enable them to make faster progress than going it alone."