Economic pressures have not yet squelched corporate social responsibility efforts as they relate to sustainable travel, according to a new study. Mollifying those who worry that the natural environment is taking a back seat to the financial one, the researchers--the Association of Corporate Travel Executives and KDS--instead were heartened by an apparent strengthening of sustainable travel on corporate agendas.
"We were pleasantly surprised to see that respondents are optimistic about the future of their organizations' overall CSR programs," according to their report, released today and based on the fourth annual ACTE-KDS CSR study, which included 329 travel managers and business travelers primarily based in the United Kingdom, continental Europe and North America. "The crisis won't lessen their companies' green efforts, they tell us. We were also encouraged to see that more report that they have a CSR charter, and that a relatively large percentage prefers to buy from a supplier that itself has a CSR charter."
However, ACTE and KDS conveyed "mixed feelings," partly because financial concerns have led to declining usage of environmentally friendlier transport options. "At this stage, green travel choices remain scarce and are usually more expensive," according to KDS CEO Yves Weisselberger. "For example, European companies can send their staff by high-speed rail, which is low in emissions but often more expensive than a low-cost flight. However, in the current economy, paying a premium is hard to justify, so green business travel will lose out."
As a result, 79 percent of respondents listed cost cutting as a "high priority," while 17 percent did so for environmentally sustainable business travel--down from 29 percent in last year's survey. Instead, nearly half of all those surveyed listed sustainable travel as a "mid-level priority."
"I would like to say that the financial crisis won't impact our program, but realistically I think this will happen to all corporates," according to one U.K. travel manager quoted in the report.
And while 70 percent of all respondents (and 80 percent of those based in the United States) said their companies "are suggesting cutting travel as a way to reduce costs," far fewer--19 percent--cited CSR objectives and cost cutting for travel reductions. Three percent listed only CSR as the impetus for scaling back travel.
Like the previous ACTE-KDS studies, this year's found that fewer U.S. respondents (35 percent) than European ones (42 percent) "said they would consider their carbon emissions when planning business travel."
Meanwhile, the report also suggested that "only a few hotel or car rental companies" offer lower-impact options, challenging buyers to lower their organizations' overall travel carbon footprint.
It also found that 61 percent of respondents' travel departments are not required to provide reports to senior management detailing travel-related carbon emissions. Report authors noted that "few" self-booking tools provide reporting capabilities and suggested that "measuring the entire door-to-door travel process is nearly impossible." Today, reports "are usually limited to the air and rail portions of carbon emissions," they continued. "Incorporating ground transportation (taxis, car rentals, public transportation) plus hotel stays into the trip's total carbon emission report is quite difficult and subject to interpretation."
Despite marketplace challenges and realities, ACTE and KDS pointed to what it described as a "trend" toward an "eco-friendly stance in travel procurement behavior," based on marginal increases in certain areas (from a noticeably larger sample size than last year, up 52 percent).
The percentage of respondent companies with CSR charters, for example, increased to 61 percent, from 59 percent last year. Those acknowledging carbon emissions "guilt" factors in individual business traveler decisions rose to 42 percent, from 41 percent. Those who said "they prefer doing business with suppliers complying with a CSR charter" edged up to 27 percent, from 26 percent.
Overall, more than half of respondents said their organizations are "paying as much attention to their travel-related CSR program" as they were before the economic instability took hold. (Twenty-seven percent of U.S.-based respondents expected their organizations to pay less attention to CSR than they had been, compared with 23 percent in Europe.)
"If a respondent says that the crisis won't stop their organization's CSR efforts, it is because these efforts--whether focused on saving energy, controlling emissions or taking positive social action--are projects that generate savings for everyone in the long term," ACTE and KDS concluded.
Added Weisselberger, "Companies clearly want to do the right thing through CSR, so once the financial premium [of lower-emissions travel options] is erased, or the economy permits, we should expect to see green business travel become far more popular."