The World Wildlife Fund UK has just launched it One in Five Challenge to persuade corporates to cut 20% of their business flights. But Sam Gilliland, chairman and ceo of Sabre Holdings, argues that this is not the way to reach environmental goals
Sam Gilliland
Planes and cattle
Every year, the global livestock industry emits 18% of the world's total carbon emissions. In fact, bovines are one of the biggest CO2 offenders. Despite that, few, if any, corporations, restaurants, supermarkets or fast food outlets have announced cutting back on beef to become more environmentally friendly.
Unfortunately, the airline industry isn't as lucky. Accounting for a mere 2% of the world's global carbon emissions, airlines have unjustifiably been labelled as one of the worst CO2 perpetrators, prompting many corporations and leisure travellers to reduce air travel. Interestingly, there are few plans to reduce tools like cell phones and computers - elements of an IT industry that also produce 2% of the world's global carbon emissions.
Recently the World Wildlife Fund UK (WWF UK) launched a challenge for companies to make a 20% reduction on business flights by 2014 to help lower CO2 emissions. While I wholeheartedly applaud and support WWF's overarching goal to lower emissions - a major focus for our own business - I'm concerned that singling out travel encourages companies to cut travel outright rather than focusing on making each trip more carbon efficient.
Travel is Good
Travel is and will continue to be a key driver of our economy. It connects companies with their customers and partners; employees with their colleagues around the world; people of diverse cultures, and brings family and friends together in ways not replicable through a text message or web page. In many respects, it represents the freedom we aspire for everyone in the world to enjoy. And whether the economies of the world remain interdependent or decoupled as some had hoped, travel is that magic ingredient connecting today's global economy. Certainly Bill Clinton's well publicised trip to free two journalists in North Korea was a poignant example of how travel played a role in international relations.
Don't ignore the good work
Call me biased but as CEO of one of the world's largest travel technology companies, I've seen the actions airlines have taken over the years to reduce its environmental impact.
According to the Air Travel Association (ATA), US commercial airlines significantly improved their fuel efficiency between 1978 and 2007, taking the equivalent of almost 17m automobiles off the road in each of those years. That same efficiency has been realised around the world. These efforts continue today with the implementation of new technologies, bio fuels, and efficient route planning. With the help of the US government, the introduction of a "NextGen" air traffic control system will also reduce airline CO2 emissions by an estimated 12% when complete. These are impressive achievements for an industry that contributes only 2% of the world's global carbon emissions. Yet, despite that, companies come under pressure to reduce air travel.
Crash diet travel
We know crash diets are bad for long-term health, so why do something similar with our corporate travel programmes? To achieve meaningful change, companies would do better by managing sustainability as a business strategy across their entire operations, driving efficiencies to lower carbon emissions. So rather than reducing use of computers, seek more efficient ways to deploy them, and demand products that are delivered through a greener, more environmentally-sustainable supply chain. These same principles should also be applied to travel.
My company, Sabre, faces the same financial pressures as other companies, and we are equally committed to reducing our environmental impact in a balanced way. We haven't drastically cut back on travel - it's just too important that we continue to meet with customers and partners around the world to form new relationships, nurture existing ones, and get business done. Instead we've balanced some cuts in employee-meeting travel with sustainable initiatives such as energy and water conservation, investing in a ‘Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design' (LEED)-certified head office, and public advocacy for policies that encourage a more sustainable global Travel and Tourism industry. There is much work to be done, but it's a start, and we will continue that focus on lowering our industry's carbon footprint.
Building a sustainable future
In the meantime, let's curb our appetite for carbon with a more thoughtful, balanced diet that seeks sustainable health for our world rather than short term wins. Make each trip more environmentally efficient rather than simply cutting the trip, reward sustainable suppliers with more business, and look at travel in the same way as other parts of the business. I wholeheartedly believe that doing so will create an environmentally sustainable future conducive to business, economic and personal growth.....and maintain the benefits of human interaction that unfortunately has been so readily dismissed in the 21st century.