OPINION

Working towards sustainable recovery When the pandemic subsides, smarter travel should be at the top of company agendas, says Sarah Wilkin, the founder and CEO of the Fly Green Alliance

As we know, business travel isn’t all Champagne and business-class seats. In fact, for many, it’s never that, and on the negative side, extensive travel can impact our health and wellbeing. Despite the personal and professional stresses we have witnessed during this lockdown, it has also given many of us the chance to take a break from the daily grind.

We have proven that flexible working is possible – we can be productive while spending time with loved ones – but once the lockdown ends, will we return to the way we were?

Before the pandemic, corporations were working towards sustainability. To drop a few names, Amex GBT, Booking.com, SAP Concur, Microsoft and Mastercard are all on this journey with their business strategy aligning with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria.

A high ESG score is not only good for the environment, but for business too.

Share prices often increase as sustainability commitments are made and employee satisfaction and engagement improves.

To take specific examples, in January, Microsoft announced it would throw US$1 billion into decarbonising by 2030 and removing historical carbon by 2050.

Meanwhile, 90 per cent of consultancy firm PWC’s carbon footprint is from travel and it recognises the need to address this.

All companies can start to ‘Travel Smart’, which in some cases may even mean choosing not to travel at all. Many will realise that video conferencing and working from home or the office is advantageous for the bottom line and the environment.

If the pandemic can act as a test case for new ways of working, then some good may have come of it. Employees are proving they can be trusted to work from home and this will lead to flexible working arrangements being added to more company policies.

We have the technology, we have smart people and we have the money when we need it, so why is finance not reaching the circular economy, green projects and emission-reduction programmes as quickly as it should, even though we have now seen the benefits of cleaner ways?

In April, an appeal for a #GreenRecovery was proposed in European Parliament. The idea is that bailouts and -re-building the economy should be a ‘Green Deal’ and conditions should be applied while finances are being shared out. We believe this is a prime opportunity to accelerate the work towards carbon neutrality by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement.

We set up flygreenalliance.org to support the mission to increase sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The challenge is that even as greener fuel is adopted, a predicted doubling of aviation passenger traffic by 2036 to 7.8 billion passengers would swamp any improvement gained from SAF, so we needed to broaden our mission and encourage people to fly less.

This led to us establishing the FGA Travel Smart programme (FGAtravelsmart. com), challenging the corporate travel industry to consider employee wellbeing, reduce global carbon emission, create optimum productivity and ensure the future of travel and business is sustainable and supported by all.

We advocate quality travel, which means paying to fly green and making a contribution to decarbonising the industry through meaningful offsets that support research into industry innovation and which pay for SAF.

We have based this on our research and following discussions with companies about their goals to reduce their emissions and contribute to climate work globally.

We are working on a best practice sustainable travel policy document and you can register to receive a copy on our website.

We welcome your comments and wish to open up some discussions so we can begin to rethink how we conduct work and travel for business, so we can all contribute to our green future. We are #Strongertogether in everything. We have seen this from COVID-19, so let’s work for a #GreenRecovery.