Meetings technology provider Troop now is incorporating carbon-emissions data from Thrust Carbon, offering clients during the planning process additional insight into the potential environmental impact of a given meeting, the companies said.
Prior to the partnership with Thrust Carbon, Troop provided emissions data in the form of "a basic CO2 estimation" calculated using data from various government and non-government sources, according to Troop co-founder Dennis Vilovic. The alliance with Thrust Carbon will enrich the platform's emissions evaluation capability and "allow us to offer a very detailed CO2 analysis to our customers," he said. That analysis factors in variables including travel modes, accommodation, meeting venue and catering.
Furnishing clients with such information during the meeting planning process is key to carrying out an effective carbon-emissions reduction strategy, according to Troop. That's because it enables planners to design meetings from the ground up to avoid unnecessary emissions for all attendees, instead of attempting to reduce individual travelers' emissions once a meeting already has been planned, the company said.
Spain-headquartered Troop—formerly known as Troop Travel—in late 2020 launched a pilot program to offer its platform to clients of travel management company Egencia as part of a larger expansion strategy. Vilovic told BTN in May that several other agency partnerships are in the works.
London-based Thrust Carbon was named judges' choice winner at BTN's Innovation Faceoff in November 2020. Since then, it has been in talks with major corporate travel agencies and technology platforms to form partnerships and integrate carbon data with travel reporting. The company recently integrated with the American Express GBT data environment "in a way that allows mutual clients to sync sustainability calculations with their entire feed of travel transactions happening at GBT," director of partnerships Glenn Thorsen told BTN. He said additional announcements would be forthcoming.