A benchmarking initiative from the GBTA Foundation, the charitable arm of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), found that organizations have “much work to do” to accelerate the integration of practices if they are to materially reduce their business travel emissions, in line with corporate net zero targets by 2050.

Called the GBTA Sustainability Acceleration Global Benchmark, developed in collaboration with Accenture, the report ranks the current state of climate action on a maturity score of 0-5, with 0 denoting “no activity” and 5 denoting “leading practice” action to mitigate business travel emissions. As of 2024, which is the first baseline year for the challenge, the overall global sustainability maturity score across all industry sectors stands at 1.3 out of 5. This demonstrates that while some action is being taken and planned, said the report, there is an urgent need to turn commitments into real impact.

The challenge was conducted in September and October, with 241 companies participating, representing an approximate cumulative business travel spend of over $14 billion. The companies completed a maturity assessment that evaluated their organization’s performance across four categories and 15 action levers related to decarbonizing their business travel programs.

Delphine Millot, senior vice president, advocacy and sustainability, GBTA, said while acknowledging serious efforts are underway to manage business travel emissions, “our global benchmark shows the stark need for significant acceleration in climate action.”

“The continued prosperity of the business travel industry,” said Millot, “is dependent on embedding sustainability in all we do.” Through these directional insights, she said, “we can better understand how organizations can manage their business travel programs more sustainably, and take the steps needed to significantly reduce carbon emissions as we work towards net zero.”

Key findings include:

• When it comes to maturity, European and global programs are ahead of the game, scoring 1.7 and 1.6 respectively, compared with North America programs at 1 and Asia-Pacific programs at 0.7.
• Finance, consulting and technology sectors scored higher than average (2.0, 1.7, 1.5), while others, such as manufacturing (0.8) and transportation/travel services (1.2), lag significantly behind.
• The size of the travel program (based on travel spend) is directly related to company sustainability maturity level. Smaller programs (less than $5 million) scored 0.8 on average, compared with large programs (more than $100 million), which scored 2.5.

Areas where organizations are trending well:

• Purposeful trips are a key opportunity in travel policies: The No. 1 sustainability practice in travel policies is evaluating the necessity of the trip (79%), a policy likely driven by cost considerations and the availability of virtual alternatives. This is closely followed by encouraging or mandating economy class for domestic trips (78%).
• Emissions tracking is becoming mainstream: A majority of companies (62%) are tracking their business travel emissions, and an additional 14% are planning to do so within the next year. Public disclosure and reporting of corporate value chain emissions (scope 3), which includes business travel, is also picking up fast, with 49% doing so and 14% planning to start.
• Science-based validation of external targets: While a small number of companies (20%) have external reduction targets for their scope 3 emissions, including business travel, these companies are largely seeking third-party, independent validation of these targets (66%), in most cases by SBTi, the Science-Based Targets Initiative (60%).
• Point-of-sale features critical to enable sustainable choices: Sixty-eight percent of companies have sustainability features included in their corporate travel booking platform, and 22% of companies are looking to upgrade or switch to platforms with better sustainability features. The most common features included are carbon calculators for trips, information on more sustainable options, and rail booking availability.

The biggest opportunities to accelerate climate action:

• Creating momentum through employee engagement: Only 32% of companies have adopted initiatives to engage their employees in travel sustainability, such as training on sustainable travel options, reports showcasing employee/business unit travel emissions, incentives, and innovation competitions; 33% are planning to adopt such initiatives.
• Sending a stronger, more harmonized demand signal: One-third of companies are currently choosing suppliers based on climate criteria, alongside other factors, while 22% are planning to. The top considerations are suppliers’ sustainability targets (85%) and certifications (80%). Standardized procurement criteria are slow to adopt, with only 13% of companies already using or planning to use the GBTA Sustainable Procurement Standards, perhaps due to lack of awareness or technological barriers.
• Helping scale the market for SAF: Only 12% of companies are currently purchasing Sustainable Aviation Fuel certificates (SAFc) as a way to compensate their business travel emissions within the value chain, spending on average $400,000 annually. However, the practice is set to double over the next year, with 15% of companies planning to be on the market for SAFc.

Going forward, GBTA will conduct a Sustainability Acceleration Challenge every year to track industry progress on decarbonizing business travel programs.