For years, one of the most repeated phrases in sustainability has been that you cannot reduce what you do not measure. Better measurement has helped businesses build a clearer picture of their environmental impact, including the emissions generated through travel and events. Reporting has improved, targets have been established, and sustainability strategies have become more sophisticated.
Now, attention is increasingly turning to what organizations do with that information.
As Director of Responsible Travel and Events at Direct Travel, Pippa Ganderton works with organizations navigating this next stage of their sustainability strategies. With extensive experience across sustainable business travel and events, she sees an opportunity for travel programs to turn greater visibility into meaningful action, focusing on the decisions and investments that can make a measurable difference.
That focus is particularly timely as COP31 approaches in Antalya this November, with implementation expected to be a central theme. For businesses that have already invested in measurement and established sustainability goals, the question becomes: what happens next?
Turning Insight into Action
Progress will increasingly depend on an organization’s ability to demonstrate year-over-year emissions reductions and identify where meaningful changes can be made.
For travel programs, that requires looking beneath the headline numbers.
- Where are there opportunities to act relatively quickly?
- Could rail replace air on certain routes?
- Would fewer, longer trips fulfill multiple objectives instead of several individual journeys?
- Can an event be held somewhere that reduces the total distance attendees need to travel?
Procurement also plays an important role. When several suppliers can meet a travel requirement, sustainability credentials can be considered alongside cost, convenience, and service. Direct routing, more efficient aircraft, and suppliers making credible investments in reducing their own environmental impact all contribute.
Individually, these decisions may appear incremental. But collectively, they help embed sustainability into the everyday choices that determine an organization’s travel footprint.
Start Where Change Is Possible
The opportunities for change will not look the same across every organization or every journey.
For businesses operating in sectors such as energy, maritime, mining, and construction, workforce mobilization can involve remote locations, limited transportation options, and time-critical operations. Understanding where lower-carbon alternatives simply don’t exist allows organizations to focus their efforts on the areas where they can make a meaningful difference.
Corporate travel between well-connected cities may offer considerably more scope for modal shift. Travel approval processes can encourage employees to consider the purpose and value of a trip, while internal carbon budgets or carbon pricing can make environmental impact more visible alongside financial cost.
Effective sustainability strategies account for these differences. Necessary travel will remain a reality for many businesses, making it important to identify credible alternatives where they exist and address the impact of travel where they do not.
Addressing the Emissions That Remain
Implementation also extends beyond traveler behavior.
Aviation remains particularly difficult to decarbonize, and many businesses will continue to depend on it. Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is one of the solutions available today that can reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions compared with conventional jet fuel while working with existing aircraft technology and infrastructure.
For businesses where flying is necessary, credible SAF programs can form part of a broader strategy: understand emissions, reduce avoidable travel, make lower-carbon choices where possible, and invest in solutions that can address some of the impact associated with necessary travel.
Importantly, SAF is not a reason to avoid the harder conversations about reduction. It remains an emerging solution, with global supply representing only a small fraction of overall jet fuel consumption. Expanding its role will require significant investment and collaboration among governments, the aviation industry, fuel producers, and corporate customers.
Corporate participation can help support that progress, particularly when SAF investment sits alongside continued efforts to reduce emissions across the travel program.
Moving Sustainability Forward
The Paris Agreement’s ambition to pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C remains an important reference point for global climate action. As organizations work toward their own targets, greater emphasis is being placed on translating commitments into measurable progress.
For travel programs, that could include modal shift, more purposeful travel, smarter procurement, carbon budgets, SAF investment, and credible action on residual emissions. The right combination will depend on an organization’s travel patterns, business requirements, and sustainability goals.
Measurement provides the foundation for those decisions. Targets establish direction. The next stage is using both to determine where action can have the greatest impact and building those choices into the way travel is managed every day.
Ready to turn your sustainability goals into action? Contact the Direct Travel team to explore how a more informed approach to travel can support your sustainability strategy.
