As a carbon accounting software we see first hand where the emissions of thousands of businesses come from. Across all sectors and in nearly every business, one of the larger areas of emissions is business travel.

Assuming you don’t own the vehicle used, both national and international business travel fall into Scope 3.6 of the GHG Reporting Protocol, which forms the basis of emissions reporting under the majority of frameworks and legislation. 

 If you own the vehicle used for business travel, be it a car or plane, the emissions fall into Scope 1.4. Within the Spherics categorisation, this will be highlighted under: “Vehicles'', most typically “Motor Vehicles”.

Reducing business travel emissions is one of the easier areas for a business to make a significant impact quickly. Here are seven ideas to help you reduce your business travel emissions: 

‍1. Measure you business travel emissions

First up, we suggest ensuring you measure your business travel emissions; even better if you can compare this against other business areas. Doing this analysis will allow you to assess whether business travel is a significant problem area for you. 

Having said that, it is likely that it will be an area you need to focus on. When we look at the statistics from the businesses that use our tool, Business Travel is ranked very highly in both number of transactions recorded & total emissions. 

If you need help with your measurement we can help.

2. Make sure your meetings are virtual

It's clear that the easiest way to remove business travel emissions is to eliminate them altogether. Improvements in technology  make holding business meetings virtually much easier, enabling you to present content, increase take up of knowledge, and save on the money and time spent traveling.  

3. Limit air travel as an option

Air travel emissions are the highest of all transport methods. For any short journeys, businesses can promote the use of alternative methods of transportation, like rail. Another good tactic to make significant carbon reductions is to only send one person to the long distance meeting.

4. Stop business class travel

A business class seat is responsible for almost double the amount of carbon emissions than an economy seat, simply because the seat itself takes up more room. By stopping your employees from flying business class, you very quickly reduce the emissions for the journey. 

5. Control high emission travel

Develop an internal system to track travel across all employees. Ensure there is a process in place where senior management sign-off on any high emission activity such as flights. 

6. Apply carbon tax internally

Applying an internal tax system on carbon emissions can help to discourage and limit carbon intensive business travel.  Businesses can introduce fees for flight travel, either on a per flight basis or based on the distance travelled during the flight.  Any funds collected from this tax can be used to invest in carbon reduction projects for the business.

7. Introduce a slow travel policy 

Here at Spherics we have introduced a slow travel policy for all employees. We provide extra days off for staff if they choose to travel using the train or bus instead of flying, and this applies to both business and leisure travel.  This works as an incentive for our staff and has proved to be very effective.

‍About Spherics

Spherics is an award-winning carbon accounting software helping businesses measure and reduce their carbon emissions, in minutes, from as little as £9pm.

Spherics has two software solutions, one for SMEs and one for larger enterprise businesses looking to better understand their supply chain carbon footprint/scope 3 carbon emissions.

For information on our SME carbon accounting software click here.

For more information on our Enterprise solution click here.

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