The business traveller is no flight fanatic
Top managers should introduce measures to reduce business flights, three quarters of employees think, according to a recent survey. Not just for its footprint, sustainable travel policies are also an important asset for employee wellbeing and in the war for talent. A great encouragement for the newborn Sustainable Business Travel Coalition.
Just flying to Madrid for a two-hour meeting, pre-corona business travellers didn't break their heads about it. Meanwhile, our online meeting tools and skills skyrocketed and we can clearly speak of pre and post in terms of business travel. Even now that our freedom of movement is (largely) back, three in five business travellers fly less than before the pandemic. This is according to a survey conducted by Ipsos in October 2022 in four European countries and the US. In fact, almost a quarter of business travellers say they do not fly at all; only 10% say they get on the plane more often now. They also note this at Zaventem airport: before the pandemic, 28% of passengers flew for business, in the second quarter of 2022 this dropped to 22%.
Less flying, more motivation
This is not only good for the climate, it also benefits the business traveller and the company. Almost all business travellers surveyed feel that post-corona travel habits have a positive impact on their work-life balance, their productivity, health and motivation. More than half of those surveyed spoke of much to very much impact themselves. Consequently, the majority of employees (74%) are calling for the introduction of targets and travel policies to reduce business travel. The survey also found that almost three quarters of employees believe that reducing the number of business flights is an important factor in reducing a company's carbon footprint.
The preferred approach is to introduce a sustainable travel policy at company level, but employees also want to do their own bit. For instance, they show willingness to fly less for internal meetings (72%), schedule local rather than global meetings (68%) and travel via a more environmentally friendly means of transport (65%).
Business Travel Pioneers
Many companies realise that business travel can be organised more efficiently and smartly without sacrificing quality. The high impact of business flying gives them leverage to greatly reduce aviation emissions while winning the war for talent.
To anchor the covid lessons and take sustainable business travel to the next level, Bond Beter Leefmilieu is bringing precursors together in the network of Business Travel Pioneers. In this way, companies and universities become part of a rich network, stay abreast of inspiring practices and help push policy in the right direction. In January, companies and universities can officially join the coalition by signing the engagement statement.
The survey was conducted in October '22 by Ipsos on behalf of the Travel Smart Campaign among 2,506 employees in the US, UK, France, Germany and Spain.
