Green Travel Growing

With the importance of environmental reform on everyone's minds and tongues, it comes as a welcome no-surprise that business travel is takings note and making changes.

According to the latest Association of Corporate Travel Executives-KDS survey of 139 business travelers and 125 travel managers from around the world, within travel planning a measured change is occurring, though it is important to note that experts assert the need for even greater progress.

The November 2007 to January 2008 survey, based on responses from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Continental Europe, highlighted a burgeoning trend of "eco-friendly" travel while amplifying a disparity between the traveler and his/her manger, with travelers in stronger support of the green movement. According to the survey report, travelers "also tend to believe that companies' support of sustainable travel is greater than travel managers actually indicate."

A disparity between UK/European and US respondents was also evident. By and large, American travelers and their employing companies are nearly half as likely as their European counterparts to track their carbon emissions or to make a concerted effort to reduce their ecological impact through diminished travel or other proactive efforts.

However, the overall survey showed improvement and evolution across political boundaries. Thirty-five percent of respondents, up from 20 percent last year, said that their company must now provide carbon emissions information. Similarly, 36 percent reported reduced company travel as a direct response to and in support of sustainability; this figure is up from 23 percent in 2006.

Companies that have travel policies with demonstrable environmental sustainability, however, only grew by two percent improvement, though "many companies are still working on the creation of a sustainable travel program," according to the report.

To read the article in full, please visit The Transnational: A Multinational Travel Newsletter.