ACTE Launches Carbon Emissions Research Effort

IBM, TRX and the U.K.'s University of Sheffield are among the sponsors of a new initiative led by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives' new Global Center to produce a report in six month's time on the efforts of corporations to reduce their carbon emissions.

Chair of the ACTE Global Center Susan Hopley said the initial report, which will cost nearly $100,000, would assess what companies are doing, how much they are paying and the results they are realizing through their individual carbon emissions reduction efforts. Companies that provide their data will get a copy of the initial report in exchange for their participation. On an ongoing basis, companies can pay $7,500 for an annual report or $10,000 for a biannual report on the ongoing findings of this research effort. Hopley told BTN that effort also has the support of U.K. governmental bodies and that she hoped that travel management companies also would participate in providing data to ACTE on their efforts to reduce and offset their corporate customers' carbon footprints.

The University of Sheffield, which is conducting the research, has devised a survey that a few large corporations already have completed and which ACTE is encouraging all of its members to complete. In addition to compiling the data from the survey, the Sheffield researchers also will examine the state of current governmental carbon emissions taxation efforts and the viability of existing carbon offset programs. The university has a history of involvement with the aviation industry in researching leading-edge designs for aircraft.

Hopley told delegates gathered at the ACTE Global Conference in Miami yesterday that they should get involved not only to ensure that their carbon emissions reduction efforts are effective, but also because of the need to voice their concerns about how governments will spend the potentially huge sums of money that they will raise through carbon emissions taxes. "The money should go to carbon offsets, and it won't if we don't speak up."