Where we can make a real difference

An assessment of the most material, or relevant, issues that we have to face and our sphere of influence in the travel sector.

Our 2019 footprint gives an indication of our previous business-as-usual CO2 emissions and their distribution across Scopes 1,2 and 3.

GLOBAL BUSINESS TRAVEL

Travel, particularly aviation, emits a large amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere, which is why we have been making vast improvements to our carbon reporting functionality in our booking tools over the last two years.

Not only does this help our clients when they book their travel through us, but it also helps us to manage and reduce the carbon footprint of our own travel. In 2019, business travel was by far the largest contributor to our Scope 3 emissions and made up 86% of our total carbon footprint.

Air & Rail

Reed & Mackay’s Travel Policy encourages video conferencing for inter-office meetings and rail options or economy flights for external meetings where video conferencing is not a suitable option. All bookings must be made via our online booking tool, R&M/Book, which displays CO2 emissions at point-of-sale.

The option to filter flight and rail options by the amount of CO2 it emits gives our employees the opportunity to choose the most eco-friendly option. Additionally, R&M/Book recommends rail options for all applicable domestic flights and allows the booker to see the CO2 emissions they will avoid by choosing the rail option.

All company air and rail CO2 emissions are monitored and measured via Reed & Mackay’s carbon emissions dashboard and reported in R&M/Insights. The interactive dashboard provides a thorough and comparable summary of CO2 emissions per month, region and class of travel.

On a monthly basis, air and rail emissions are reviewed for the purpose of identifying improvement opportunities and reported to the Executive Team.

Accommodation

In 2021, we improved our travel carbon emissions reporting even further by adding a new hotel carbon emissions reporting functionality to our reporting tool, R&M/Insights. As of March 2021, Reed & Mackay’s hotel emissions are being measured, reviewed and reported.

Last year, we also updated our booking tools to display Sabre’s Eco-Certified hotels. Each of the hotels in Sabre’s hotel program has been certified by a partner whose standards closely align with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s criteria.

Company Vehicles

We do not own a large fleet of company vehicles, however, environmental impact is considered for the vehicles we do own. Over the last two years, half of our company vehicles have changed from petrol/diesel to hybrid vehicles.

Mileage travelled in company vehicles is collated in our expense management tool and measured on a monthly basis. The latest DEFRA conversion factors are used to convert mileage to CO2 emissions.

Hired Vehicles

Our Travel Policy encourages public transport instead of taxis and hired vehicles. However, where hired vehicles are necessary, bookings are made via an ISO 14001 certified car booking company whose sustainability practices are closely aligned with our own. Mileage and CO2 emissions data are collated and reported.

We are currently exploring ways to make ground transportation even greener for our clients and for our company by working with a company that brings black cabs and private hire vehicles together in one app and offers electric vehicle options for all.

OPERATIONS

We utilise a broad range of IT products and web-based tools. Technological options are considered when addressing risks and opportunities to prevent the cause of further environmental impact.

Electronic Equipment

Energy consumption and reduction is reviewed at the Management level of the IT Operations Team. The IT Operations Team continue to proactively move towards cloud-based resources to reduce energy usage in infrastructure equipment.

Additionally, there are IT projects in progress that will remove the need for office equipment to be operating outside of office hours. The following end-of-life strategy is applied to IT equipment, which allows for energy improvements:

Monitors, printers, servers and infrastructure equipment: 5 years
Desktops: 4 years
Laptops and mobile phones: 3 years

All IT waste is recycled responsibly via an approved IT waste contractor. Energy consumption is considered when sourcing all other electronic office equipment, such as refrigerators, microwaves and printers. Environmental due diligence is carried out with the supplier.

Data Centres

Reed & Mackay check the environmental accreditations of our outsourced data centres. Both data centres are ISO 14001 (Environmental) and ISO 50001 (Energy Management) compliant.

Other environmental initiatives include maintaining comprehensive energy management systems, membership to an internationally recognised critical environments programme, membership to the UK Climate Change Agreement and setting a Science Based Target.

HQ FACILITIES

Reed & Mackay’s Head Office in London is the most significant contributor to CO2 emissions from facilities. As well as this being our oldest location, around ~37% of the global workforce are located here making it the largest individual location by far, and so environmental impacts are well managed with a mature program of reduction initiatives.

Lighting

Our Head Office has LED lighting throughout, which has significantly increased our energy efficiency since the lighting was converted in 2018.

The energy efficiency of lighting in our other offices will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Energy Efficiency

Alongside other tenants at our Head Office, we have installed a SMART meter, which enable us to monitor our energy usage in real-time and encourage efficient use of power resources.

In the last two years, working from home became a necessity and research suggests that our overall energy consumption can increase when homeworking, especially in the colder months. For this reason, Reed & Mackay ran an awareness campaign to help our employees reduce their energy consumption.

Office Materials and Supplies

We carry out environmental due diligence with all of the suppliers we source office stationary and marketing products from.

Our Head Office printing statistics are monitored on a monthly basis and reported. Employees are encouraged to print (double-sided) only when required and access to colour printing is restricted to certain roles and functions.

Our IT Team continue to implement cloud-based resources, such as DocuSign, allowing electronic storage and reducing the need to print.

We carry out regular checks with cleaning contractors to ensure the use and disposal of cleaning products is compliant with environmental and health & safety legislation.

INTERNATIONAL PARTNER NETWORK

Headquartered in London and with UK offices in England, Scotland and Wales, we also operate offices globally in Amsterdam, Chicago, Delhi, Dubai, Frankfurt, Melbourne, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Singapore, Sydney and Toronto.

To provide clients with extended global coverage, we established the Reed & Mackay International Partnership which extends our reach across more than 50 countries and 140 office locations.

The Reed & Mackay International Partnership is a group of carefully selected corporate travel providers who operate as Reed & Mackay, bringing with them a wealth of experience and in-depth travel knowledge from within their local markets.

We conduct thorough due diligence on the selected partners to ensure they share our quality ethos and can operate under our IT infrastructure.

Waste

We use the reduce, reuse and recycle hierarchy when managing our waste. We only work with reputable waste disposal companies that consider the environment during the collection and disposal process and comply with waste legislation.

The relevant waste documentation is obtained for every collection and disposal, including Waste Transfer Notes, Hazardous Consignment Notes and Certificates of Destruction, where applicable. Records and obtained and held on file by the Office Manager.

Other initiatives which have been implemented:

Milk dispensers added to Head Office kitchens, removing the need for milk cartons
Avoidance of unnecessary items and packaging e.g. stir straws and individual packets of sugar, coffee and tea bags
Drinking water taps installed. No bottled water provided for employees
Office stationery, marketing materials and kitchen supplies, bought in bulk to reduce packaging waste
Motion sensor hand dryers used in toilets. Paper towels are not provided

Re-usable cutlery/crockery/cups provided, avoiding disposable options
When moving or opening new offices, Reed & Mackay re-use office furniture wherever possible
Airline and hotel partners encouraged to use on-site crockery and cutlery when providing refreshments at Reed & Mackay offices
When IT equipment is at end-of-life, our IT waste contractor ensures confidential data is destroyed and reuses the equipment wherever possible

Reed & Mackay carry out due diligence with all waste contractors to ensure office waste is recycled responsibly. The Head Office waste contractor has a ‘zero waste’ strategy and is committed to diverting all waste from landfill
Where IT waste cannot be reused or repaired, it is harvested for functional parts before being recycled
Recycling bins are clearly labelled and provide guidance on how to dispose of waste correctly
Plastic bottles of water in our reception and meeting areas have been removed and replaced with recyclable glass option

Our Head Office in London participates in the Clean City Awards Scheme. Meetings are held to discuss innovations and potential improvements to waste management processes.

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

Abnormal & Emergency Situations

We have identified the potential environmental consequences of abnormal emergency situations in accordance with external and internal issues, expectations from interested parties and compliance obligations.

All potential emergency situations are logged on our Risk Register, which is regularly reviewed. Controls have been implemented to prevent or mitigate adverse environmental impacts.

We have been certified to ISO 22301 since 2013. Our Business Continuity Management System is designed to handle the adverse effects of any business interruption, including the adverse effects on the environment.

Our Office Manager is responsible for assessing the environmental impact of an incident or crisis and applying the appropriate recovery method.

Water

As an office-based company, our water consumption is very low. However, processes are in place to reduce the amount of water we consume wherever possible.

Dishwashers are only used once they are at their full capacity. Regular water maintenance takes place in compliance with legislation to prevent leaks and contamination.

RESPONSIBLE PROCUREMENT

Reed & Mackay expect all suppliers and other third parties performing services on behalf of our company to share our ethical and sustainability commitments.

Governance

For all suppliers, Reed & Mackay’s Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Team is responsible for issuing and checking that supplier due diligence responses meet our expectations and compliance requirements. Our GRC Team may raise queries or risks against the due diligence questionnaires, which must be addressed with the potential supplier prior to approval. As part of this process, our Finance Team is responsible for performing credit checks on potential suppliers to understand the company’s financial standing.

We have contractual commitments with each partner, and they work to a specific set of key performance commitments. Our robust supplier due diligence process enables us to check the commitments and processes of a potential supplier both before we consider onboarding them and ongoing thereafter with checks being undertaken as mentioned in the following pages.

Environmental Processes & Commitments

Including; certification to environmental standards, such as ISO 14001 or ISO 5001, compliance with environmental laws and regulations. All services that impact Reed & Mackay’s significant environmental aspects are recorded on our Environmental Aspects & Impacts Log and analysed from a lifecycle perspective. Details of supplier certifications are checked and added to the log, which is reviewed on an annual basis.

Corporate Governance and Quality

Including; checks of the following processes: Anti-Bribery, Anti-Money Laundering, Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking, Child Labour, Ethical Business Practices, CSR, Tax Evasion, Equality & Diversity, compliance with applicable laws and regulations, due diligence carried out on their own suppliers, Quality Management processes including ISO 9001 compliance.

Information Security

Including; ISO 27001 certification, SOC2 reporting, PCI DSS compliance, Cyber Essentials certification, ensuring their procedure for reporting breaches is in line with our Supplier Operating Principles, informing of any information security incidents or data breaches over the last 12 months, criminal background check procedure, information security and data protection training, cyber security insurance confirmation, frequency of penetration tests.

Data Protection

Including; identifying the data protection regulations applicable to the supplier location and confirmation of compliance including registration with a data protection regulatory body, evidence of a data protection policy and Privacy Notice, confirming categories of personal data (including sensitive personal data) that will be stored or processed on behalf of Reed & Mackay), identifying countries where data will be hosted and a list of third parties to whom the data will be shared with, process of informing Reed & Mackay of a personal data breach, confirmation of a nominated Data Protection Officer or Data Protection contact and their contact details.

Business Continuity

Including: certification to ISO 22301, confirmation that partner Business Continuity Plans have been reviewed and tested in the last 12 months, overview of Business Continuity procedures, how they would inform Reed & Mackay of a disruption to the service they will be providing, confirmation of their Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO). Due to Covid-19, our Business Continuity due diligence questionnaire was updated in 2020 for the additional purpose of checking the key elements of the partners Pandemic Response Plan.

Health & Safety & Physical Access

Including: certification to ISO 45001, reporting health & safety convictions in the last 5 years, confirmation of criminal background checks carried out on their employees accessing the premises, confirmation that health & safety inductions are carried out if necessary, confirmation that health & safety risk assessments are carried out, evidence of food and/or alcohol licenses. In 2020, our health & safety due diligence questionnaire was updated for the purpose of checking measures taken to protect against the spread of Covid-19.

Supplier Reviews

We perform reviews with suppliers at varying frequencies, depending on the criticality of the supplier to the business. Owners of supplier relationships must complete Reed & Mackay’s Supplier Review Form in accordance with our Supplier Review Procedures.
The supplier is given an overall rating at the end of the review. Identified improvement areas are addressed in a timely manner.
We have maintained communication with critical suppliers to ensure they undertake precautionary measures and actively review and update their Business Continuity Plans in response to the ongoing threat of the Covid-19 pandemic.

OUR SPHERE OF INFLUENCE IN THE TRAVEL SECTOR

As a $1 billion business in the corporate travel arena, we meet the needs and requests of our clients, by acting as a broker and assisting them in their travel management. Almost every aspect of our purchasing capacity, and subsequently its impact on the environment is determined by the purchases and policies of our clients.

Recognising this, we work hard to proactively drive our client choices, and raise awareness of sustainable travel options in order to influence their commitments, providing support through technology, policy and behavioural change advice.

We also work to support wider industry initiatives to create a sustainable working blueprint across all business sectors and to publicise the efforts of our industry suppliers – airlines, airports, hotels, meetings & events venues, road transportation and rail companies.

With a history spanning 60 years and a reputation for service excellence, along with our expertise in the high-profile Law and Finance sectors and absolute integrity – we are considered as one of the most important opinion setters in the UK travel fraternity.

Richard Boardman, Executive Director

The leading industry body in the UK is the Business Travel Association (BTA) and Richard Boardman (founding family member and current Executive Director of Reed & Mackay) is the longest serving member of the associations governing board.

Fred Stratford, CEO

As well as accepting regular invitations to speak at leading industry events, our CEO – Fred Stratford - sits on the advisory board of the International Air Traffic Association (IATA) which places us at the forefront of global discussions on all manner of travel industry topics.

CLIENT EXPECTATIONS

In recent history, partly caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a groundswell of interest in sustainability from clients. With an increased awareness of the impact of corporate travel and a recognition that business can continue with a reduced reliance on corporate travel, many of our leading clients have already signalled an intention to reduce their carbon footprint to a greater or lesser extent.

Many have set Science Based Targets which commit to a 30% or 50% reduction in their CO2 footprint by 2030 or sooner. Alongside this, many have made commitments to the UN Global Compact, joining thousands of other companies around the globe who want to take responsible business action to create the world we all want. UNGC's mission is to support companies doing business responsibly by aligning their strategies and operations with ten universal principles on human rights, labour, environment, and anti-corruption.

To help our clients meet their commitments we have enhanced the support we can offer them in measuring and reducing their CO2 footprint and continue to develop innovative solutions that assist them in meeting their targets. Meanwhile they are increasingly expecting us to make similar commitments and / or comply with outside scrutiny as to our own operations.