Companies need better carbon tracking. How can we get there?

Without industry standards in place, the various reporting methodologies and best practices for carbon reporting can be something of a minefield, particularly when standards differ across various regions.

To address best practices in carbon emissions reporting that can lead to a more sustainable travel strategy, the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) recently hosted a webinar that feature panel speakers: Jackie Kidd, practice lead, responsible travel consulting at CWT Solutions Group; Brenda Quek, Asia-Pacific travel, meetings and events program and engagement leader, supply chain services – travel, meetings and events services at Ernst & Young Solutions; Catherine Logan, regional vice president EMEA & APAC at GBTA; and Ben Wedlock, senior vice president global sales, Asia Pacific at BCD Travel.

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Highlighting the importance of adopting and applying a framework in real-life examples, E&Y’s Quek said instead of just delivering carbon data reports to travellers within an organisation they should be made aware of them at the point of booking.

“That's how we collaborated with IBM to come up with our approval tool, the EY stack tool,” she said. “This allows travellers to have more visibility about how each decision, such as making a day trip and looking at economy class versus business class, impacts the environment.”

GBTA’s Logan pointed to how research has shown that a lack of accurate data around emissions is the biggest barrier to rolling out sustainability programmes.

“If you take even a single flight, you could have nine different potential measurements for the same seat on the same flight happening on the same day,” she said “And there could be a 50% variance on what the emissions are.”

Logan touched on how Europe, specifically the European Union, had published a report on corporate sustainability, reflecting how providing information to influence behaviour is a vitally important tool.

“You could go on to to book a flight, at the same time you should have the option to look at a real journey or a combination of rail and flight, so you can make an informed perspective based on how long the journey will take, how much it will cost and importantly, what emissions are involved,” she said.

Navigating complexity in APAC

The panel also questioned whether the Asia-Pacific region is too fragmented and complex to have a standardised framework in place with regards to carbon emissions.

“We're highly nuanced [in Asia-Pacific] – we understand the complexities and fragmentation across our region,” said BCD’s Wedlock. “There's also a huge limitation around infrastructure in some of our core countries in Asia Pacific, for example, the train may not be an option if travelling from the Gold Coast to Singapore. That's a limitation.”

While the panel agreed that infrastructure plays a big part, they reiterated that building awareness is key and that being behind other regions can be seen as a positive.

“Everyone needs to buy in… the numbers can help drive decisions, but the education behind interpreting those numbers and understanding the importance of every individual action will support the data and make it that much more effective,” said CWT’s Kidd.

Kidd added that it’s vital to not let perfection with regards to carbon emissions become the enemy of progress.

“With regards to sustainability and carbon reporting you will have to baseline and baseline several more times on your journey,” she said. “You're working towards science-based targets so own that and go with it.”

The panel concluded that having the right partners in place and senior support within your organisation is vital for emissions reporting, alongside making a conscious decision every time you travel.

Simplicity is the best approach, they said, it’s not about perfecting the data but having enough data from which to start your carbon emissions journey.