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How Can You Reduce Your Company's Business Travel Carbon Footprint?

Dec 12, 2023
Business Travel
employee riding an electric scooter

Let’s start by tackling the obvious question: why would you want to? Perhaps you’re reading this because you’re already convinced that you need to. If not, here’s a quick summary of why you should be seeking to reduce your business travel carbon footprint. 

Reducing your company’s business travel footprint doesn’t only help the planet, but can also have many benefits for your business and your employees. 

Reducing your carbon footprint, in fact, often means avoiding unnecessary trips—and all the related costs. So, putting in place a sustainable travel policy that includes carefully chosen travel providers puts your employees in control of their travel plans and saves you both time and money in the long run.Read on for some tips on how you can reduce your company’s business travel carbon footprint and what benefits this will bring to your business.

What is a Carbon Footprint?

So, your carbon footprint is the total amount of CO2 you're responsible for. And we want to keep it as small as possible by using energy wisely and choosing eco-friendly options whenever we can.

A carbon footprint is like a trail of invisible footprints left behind by everything we do. 

When we use energy, like driving a car or using electricity, we release Carbon Dioxide (CO2) into the air. These CO2 emissions trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere, causing our planet to get warmer, which is bad for the environment. 

How can you Reduce your Company's Business Travel Carbon Footprint?

Like anything else related to sustainability, reducing your business travel carbon footprint is all about the choices you make. 

While factors such as location, accommodation and consumption can play a role, the changes that will make the biggest difference are those related to transportation.

Here are some key transport choices you can make:Choosing new, eco-friendly ground transport options, such as electric vehicles or eBikes and eScooters will put you way ahead of the crowd. These have low carbon emissions and reduce city congestion. So make sure you choose a ground travel provider that can offer you a range of green options.

NO NEED TO FLY

We’ve all heard about how much CO2 planes release into the atmosphere, so it stands to reason that reducing the amount of flying we do willnreduce our carbon footprint. Making flying your last resort and choosing ground travel over air travel whenever possible will make a difference.

THE NEXT TRAIN TO SUSTAINABILITY WILL BE DEPARTING FROM PLATFORM 1

Travelling by train has been shown to be one of the most eco-friendly ways of travelling, especially high-speed trains. If you travel by Eurostar from London to Paris, your carbon emissions are only 4 g of CO2 per kilometre, compared to 154 g per km if you go by air. It can also be more comfortable than flying and just a quick.

THE FUTURE IS ELECTRIC

Choosing new, eco-friendly ground transport options, such as electric vehicles or eBikes and eScooters will put you way ahead of the crowd. These have low carbon emissions and reduce city congestion. So make sure you choose a ground travel provider that can offer you a range of green options.

Choose a ground travel provider with a solid fleet of electric vehicles

Having a range of low-emission transport options at your fingertips when travelling for business makes reducing your carbon footprint easy. 

FREENOW’s Business Travel App is a business travel solution that puts you and your employees in control of your business travel carbon footprint. Its easy-to-use interface contains a range of flexible and sustainable business travel options. 

FREENOW boasts one of Europe's largest fleets of electric and zero-emission vehicles, helping you make more sustainable choices and reduce your carbon footprint.

The app shows you a range of possible travel options, helping you make the most sustainable choices and take advantage of zero-emission taxis, eScooters, eMopeds and eBikes.

Measure your business travel emissions

How can I know if my travel policy is effective in reducing our carbon footprint?” Measuring and keeping track of the carbon emissions is difficult and time-consuming. 

Being able to measure your business travel emissions is vital, though, if you want to be able to set effective sustainability goals and monitor if they’re working. 

This is where choosing the right provider makes all the difference. Make sure your business travel provider has all the tools you need to simply and effectively track your travel emissions and you’ll be on your way.

Calculate business travel carbon emissions with FREENOW

FREENOW’s Business Travel Admin Panel features online booking tools, carbon emissions tracking and management of corporate and individual travel policies, helping you draw up and implement a sustainable business travel policy that effectively reduces your carbon footprint.

FREENOW for Business provides detailed CO2 reports. You can use this data to set your sustainability targets and power your CSR strategy, enabling you to make adjustments to your travel policies in order to reduce your overall footprint.

Benefits of reducing your carbon footprint

On a personal level, reducing your carbon footprint is a no-brainer! It helps fight climate change and makes the Earth healthier. 

When we use less energy and make eco-friendly choices, we save money, breathe cleaner air and protect our home. Plus, we leave a better world for future generations. 

We’re all keen to work for and buy from companies that reflect our values. By making greener choices, businesses can cut costs, improve employee well-being and show their commitment to a sustainable future. It's good for the Earth and the bottom line—a smart move for any company!