Introduction

Thought leadership from Reed & Mackay

Business continuity, travel management and climate change are increasingly at an intersect. Climate extremes will increasingly disrupt facilities, travel and supply chains. Businesses will need greater resilience to keep their operations going and travel management programmes will need to adapt and mitigate for a net-zero carbon world.

This involves taking travel management to a whole new level.

If we want businesses, with their globally dispersed networks of offices, value chains, suppliers and buyers to thrive in the future they need travel policies that take climate change seriously, with plans that are proactive, not reactive.

Truly accountable corporations must fully realise the emissions that business trips create. But they also need to understand how vital travel is in creating agile, resilient and connected businesses, able to cope when floods in Bangalore knock out IT centres, droughts close factories in Cape Town or Ho Chi Minh City or rising sea-levels lead to office relocations in Jakarta.

This is no longer business as usual.

The link is still not being universally made between the increase in extreme short-term weather disruptions, long-term climate risk, the need for business continuity and the role business travel plays.

Commitments by firms to reach net zero emissions by 2050 are only now starting to impact how businesses weigh up their travel programmes. The need to win new contracts or cement old ones overseas is still there, yet the way to be more sustainable is still a circle that needs to be squared.

The use of carbon offsets, variances on ESG standards plus a reluctance to switch to more sustainable practices for fear of losing business to competitors, can still colour people’s judgements. At the same time, many greener, yet affordable, travel solutions are emerging from the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) to the mass adoption of electric taxis.

Yet the global pandemic has shown how business can be done differently around the globe, how connections can be made remotely and that corporations can continue to thrive with less business travel. However, the recent surge in corporate trips, post COVID-19, has shown that humans have a continued need to connect face-to-face.

In the future, there is a new equilibrium to be reached, where business travel is more sustainable, more purpose-driven, more considerate of the effects it has on the climate, yet mindful of plans for business continuity and growth. This is likely to come into stark focus as weather extremes and the effects of a warming planet are felt more frequently.

By thinking about these issues right now and planning for greater climate extremes, plus the role that managed travel can play, corporations can build greater resilience and improve their ability to maintain business continuity. This could be a source of confidence, not to mention competitive advantage in the future. Those who move first will set the tone for those to follow.

Reed & Mackay is exploring the issues around this ‘business trilemma’ – how to balance business continuity, climate change and the need to travel to achieve economic growth. A lot more discussion needs to be had.

If we don't clearly articulate a path to a more sustainable managed travel sector, this will be a problem for us and the future of our industry.

Chris Truss, Reed & Mackay International Development & Sustainability Director