Reduce financial and carbon costs with a sustainable travel policy
When assessing the operational costs of a commercial enterprise, one aspect that often takes people by surprise is the sheer expense of travel that is often undertaken by businesses.
If you are looking for ways to control and reduce your expenditure on business travel, then it is really worth looking into how a sustainable travel policy can help.
The aim of a sustainable travel policy is to help reduce carbon emissions and minimise the environmental impact caused by business travel. With proper planning and implementation, a travel policy can also have positive financial impacts, such as reducing the overall costs associated with corporate travel.
The policy should include clear guidelines on areas such as booking methods and modes of transport, and should also consider other factors such as the environmental impact of different types of travel. By setting clear goals, such as reducing emissions and optimising cost savings, businesses can ensure they are able to achieve both environmental and financial objectives.
Why implement a sustainable travel policy?
The Department for Transport strongly emphasises implementing a sustainable travel policy for a number of reasons. Sustainable travel helps to:
- Reduce congestion
- Improve local environments
- Lower your carbon footprint
- Encourage healthier and safer lifestyles
Considering these factors, a strong sustainable travel policy should not only cover the economic and environmental impact of your business travel, but also employee wellbeing. For example, long and stressful journeys for business purposes can negatively impact an employee’s productivity and job satisfaction.
Planning your policy
When planning your sustainable travel policy try to:
- Understand the environmental impacts of your travel choices
- Lower your carbon emissions by minimising overall journeys and finding alternatives to air travel where possible
- Go paperless by using digital receipts and tickets
- Encourage greener travel habits among your colleagues
- Offering electric or hybrid company cars, if possible or relevant
- Offsetting remaining carbon emissions
To help businesses become more effective at monetary and carbon cost control we have published a guide to help you plan and implement a sustainable travel policy for your organisation.
Learn how Webexpenses can help with corporate travel.