Green Business Travel Made Easy
How often do you or your employees fly? If the answer is fairly or very often, news out today on Greenbiz.com can help you reduce the environmental impact of your business travel while also allowing you to publicize your company's green credentials.
A consortium of nine UK universities and government bodies joined forces to create a toolkit to help companies reduce the CO2 emissions generated by their business travel. It's called ICARUS and is available for free download.
The toolkit includes "environmental policy guidelines and recommended carbon dioxide measurement tools" and "suggests planning itineraries to lower the distances traveled and increasing low impact travel, such as rail, over air travel." Companies can also reduce their emissions by choosing carriers "with strong environmental performance."
ICARUS also includes a system of accreditation for companies that successfully implement the toolkit. Suppliers of travel services will also be recognized for making their products more environmentally friendly. Companies such as Credit Suisse and Unilever have already adopted the measures. For example,
Credit Suisse requires employees to get approval before confirming any travel arrangements and introduced upgraded videoconferencing systems in key locations replicate face-to-face meetings and reduce travel.
The company offset about 68,000 miles of business air travel by investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency schemes.Using ICARUS could definitely have a positive impact on the environment. It just might have a positive impact on your company's image as well.
(Image of airplane wing by Zesmerelda, CC 2.0)