The results, gathered from a representative sample of 510 respondents, show very clear trends in favor of train use over other means of transport:

• 81% consider the train as a more productive way to travel, compared to other modes of transport
• Half report that their companies are implementing the government’s recommendation to use the train by default for journeys up to 4 hours
• A majority believe their companies should adopt rail travel as the mode of transport for journeys lasting up to 8 hours

Read the French version.

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Les résultats recueillis auprès d’un échantillon représentatif de 510 répondants, montrent des orientations très claires en faveur de l’usage du train par rapport à d’autres moyens de transport:

• Pour 81% de voyageurs d’affaires, le train est considéré comme un moyen de transport plus productif que les autres
• La moitié d’entre eux indiquent que leur entreprise mette en place la recommandation du gouvernement d’utiliser le train par défaut pour les trajets d’une durée inférieure à 4 heures
• Les voyageurs d’affaires considèrent majoritairement que leur entreprise devrait imposer le train comme moyen de transport, et ce, jusqu’à 8h00 de voyage

Lire la version en anglais.

The post Les voyageurs d’affaires français préfèrent nettement le train à d’autres moyens de transport appeared first on Travel Smart.

We believe that rail travel is a practical and efficient way to reduce our travel emissions while maintaining client’s relationships. Introduction of our Global Travel Guidelines and strong employee engagement has been instrumental in shift from air to rail travel.

Anne Rupp

Global Head of ESG, Simon-Kucher

The post Simon-Kucher appeared first on Travel Smart.

Over the last decade, companies have taken clear steps to reduce their carbon footprint. As part of this effort, every year new businesses decide to reduce their air travel emissions by shifting to rail. This year again, the momentum is undeniable: companies are not just talking about it: they’re taking action.

Notable examples include Roland Berger, the global consulting firm, which has implemented a mandatory rail policy for journeys that can be completed by train in under 3:30 hours, while offering employees perks like first-class rail travel and allowing train time to count as work hours for work done during personal travel. Similarly, major pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca mandates rail travel for trips under four hours, and multinational bank ING restricts air travel on short-haul routes where high-speed rail is available.

These companies’ practices illustrate a bigger trend. Take the UK, for instance, where rail travel by public sector employees now outpaces air travel on routes between Scotland and London. France has also seen a surge in business rail travel, with SNCF, the national rail operator, reporting that corporate rail travel has returned to 2019 levels. In fact, the French government now strongly encourages companies to opt for rail on trips under four hours. This is the future of corporate travel in Europe, and it’s happening now.

Corporate travellers want better cross-border services

But bottlenecks still exist and if they are not addressed, the shift towards rail travel will halt. First, we need to solve the cumbersome processes to book rail tickets. That’s where the EU Single Ticketing Regulation comes in. Confirmed by the European Commission, it will be tabled in 2025 and will streamline the process of booking international rail journeys. Over 70 companies have already called on the EU to improve ticketing, and now the EU is responding. 

The new regulation will require rail operators to share their data across all platforms, allowing business travellers to book a single ticket for multi-leg journeys, no matter which operators are involved. This will not only make booking easier but will ensure that passengers benefit from full rights in case of delays or cancellations.

Second, the EU and governments must step up investments in rail infrastructure. Business travellers demand reliability, and in some countries, the service simply isn’t good enough. Investments in network maintenance and digitalisation are needed to reduce delays and cancellations. 

Take Germany, for example: less than two-thirds of Deutsche Bahn’s long-distance trains arrived on time in 2024. This unreliability has prompted leading business associations representing over 1500 members  and companies like SAP, IKEA retailer Ingka Group, Sweco, as well as the University of Liège to join environmental groups in calling on the German government to invest in modernising the rail network. 

Reliability issues are not unique to Germany. To fully unlock the potential of rail travel, Europe must leverage its rail infrastructure. The upcoming EU budget and the Connecting Europe Facility, a key EU funding tool, should be used to upgrade cross-border links.

It’s clear that business travellers are ready to make the shift. But to truly embrace this change, the EU and governments must act quickly. The EU’s Single Ticketing Regulation is a step in the right direction, but more investment in infrastructure for improved service reliability is essential.

Victor Thévenet, Rail Manager and Denise Auclair, Head of the Travel Smart Campaign

Originally published in Euractiv.

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En la última década, las empresas han tomado medidas claras para reducir su huella de carbono. Como parte de este esfuerzo, cada año nuevas empresas deciden reducir sus emisiones de viajes aéreos cambiando al tren. Este año, una vez más, el impulso es innegable: las empresas no solo hablan de ello, sino que están tomando medidas para que se haga realidad.

Ejemplos notables incluyen Roland Berger, una consultora que ha implementado una política ferroviaria obligatoria para los viajes que se pueden completar en tren en menos de 3:30 horas, ofreciendo a los empleados ventajas como viajes en primera clase y permitiendo que el tiempo en el tren cuente como horas de trabajo para el trabajo realizado durante el viaje personal. De manera similar, la principal compañía farmacéutica AstraZeneca exige viajes en tren para trayectos de menos de cuatro horas, y el banco multinacional ING restringe los viajes aéreos en rutas de corta distancia donde hay disponible tren de alta velocidad.

Las prácticas de estas empresas ilustran una tendencia mayor. Tomemos el Reino Unido, por ejemplo, donde los viajes en tren de los empleados del sector público ahora superan a los viajes aéreos en rutas entre Escocia y Londres. Francia también ha visto un aumento en los viajes de negocios en tren, con la SNCF, el operador nacional de ferrocarriles, informando que los viajes corporativos en tren han vuelto a los niveles de 2019. De hecho, el gobierno francés ahora alienta encarecidamente a las empresas a optar por el tren en viajes de menos de cuatro horas. Este es el futuro de los viajes corporativos en Europa, y ya está teniendo lugar.

Los viajeros corporativos quieren mejores servicios transfronterizos

Pero aún existen cuellos de botella y, si no se abordan, el cambio hacia el viaje en tren se detendrá. Primero, necesitamos resolver los procesos engorrosos que suponen reservar billetes de tren. Ahí es donde entra el Reglamento de Billete Único de la UE. Confirmado por la Comisión Europea, se presentará en 2025 y simplificará el proceso de reserva de viajes internacionales en tren. Más de 70 empresas ya han solicitado a la UE mejorar la venta de billetes, y ahora la UE está tomando cartas en el asunto.

El nuevo reglamento requerirá que los operadores ferroviarios compartan sus datos en todas las plataformas, permitiendo a los viajeros de negocios reservar un solo billete para viajes con múltiples tramos, sin importar qué operadores estén involucrados. Esto no solo facilitará la reserva, sino que garantizará que los pasajeros se beneficien de todos los derechos en caso de retrasos o cancelaciones.

Inversiones en Infraestructura

Para satisfacer las demandas de las personas que viajan por negocios, la UE y los gobiernos deben aumentar las inversiones en infraestructuras ferroviarias. Los viajeros de negocios demandan fiabilidad y, en algunos países, el servicio simplemente no es lo suficientemente bueno. Se necesitan inversiones en mantenimiento de la red y digitalización para reducir los retrasos y cancelaciones.

En Alemania, por ejemplo: menos de dos tercios de los trenes de larga distancia de Deutsche Bahn llegaron a tiempo en 2024. Esta falta de fiabilidad ha llevado a importantes asociaciones empresariales que representan a más de 1500 miembros y empresas como SAP, el minorista IKEA Ingka Group, Sweco, así como la Universidad de Lieja, a unirse a grupos medioambientales para pedir al gobierno alemán que invierta en la modernización de la red ferroviaria.

Conclusión

Los problemas de fiabilidad no son exclusivos de Alemania. Para desbloquear todo el potencial del viaje en tren, Europa debe aprovechar su infraestructura ferroviaria. El próximo presupuesto de la UE y el Mecanismo Conectar Europa, una herramienta clave de financiación de la UE, deben usarse para mejorar las conexiones transfronterizas.

Está claro que los viajeros de negocios están listos para hacer el cambio. Pero para abrazar verdaderamente este cambio, la UE y los gobiernos deben actuar rápidamente. El Reglamento de Billete Único de la UE es un paso en la dirección correcta, pero se necesita más inversión en infraestructuras para mejorar la fiabilidad del servicio.

Victor Thévenet, Coordinador ferroviario y Denise Auclair, responsable de la campaña Travel Smart

Publicado originalmente en Euractiv.

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The letter is addressed to Members of Parliament from the transport and budget committees. It calls on the current and next federal government to provide sufficient funds in the 2025 federal budget for the modernisation, digitalisation and expansion of the rail network, to simplify and secure the long-term financing of the railways by introducing a rolling rail fund over the course of several years and to ensure that rail tolls are significantly reduced and not increased.

“The stakes are often too high to deal with a large amount of uncertainty”, says Hugo Houppermans, Director of Anders Reizen, the Dutch business travellers coalition of 70 multinational corporations. “Many of the organisations in our coalition prioritise train over plane. Especially the trains from Amsterdam to London and Paris are usually fully booked. But the appetite to use trains running to and through Germany has been falling because of unreliability. This damages the climate and business. We need a top-notch German rail system and a stronger European coordination of rail infrastructure and cross-border trains.”

Jacob Rohm, Senior Policy Advisor for Climate-neutral Mobility at Germanwatch, says: “The German investment backlog in the rail network is slowing down European business travellers and their switch to climate-friendly rail travel. The current insecurity following the end of the German government shows just how important it is to resolve this backlog with reliable and efficient funding flows through a well-funded rail infrastructure fund. This is a key task for this and the next federal government. In the short term, funding for the general overhaul of central rail routes must also be secured for 2025”.

The letter has been signed by associations, companies and organisations at EU level and various member states, including the European Passenger Federation, the Anders Reizen coalition of 70 multinational corporations in the Netherlands, DAX-listed company SAP, IKEA retailer Ingka Group, medium-sized companies such as Europe’s largest architecture and engineering consultancy Sweco, the University of Liège and an opera house. It was coordinated by Transport & Environment, Germanwatch and VCD.

An external quote by Prof. Dr. Gerard Govers, Vice-Rector for Sustainability at KU Leuven university, which did not sign the letter, puts the initiative in context: “Scientists and professors frequently have to travel across Europe. When travelling to give a lecture or a speech, reliability is key. But all too often trans-European rail travel is marred by delays and even train cancellations. Germany needs to upgrade and expand its rail network, and the EU needs to accelerate the creation of new cross-border high-speed rail services with a synchronised timetable. The current business travellers initiative is therefore a welcome appealto the German government.”

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If you are working in a company, then you must have already travelled for work. You most likely took the plane for a meeting within the country, to a neighbouring one or to the other side of the globe. 

Yes, taking the plane sounds very convenient. But it’s definitely not the most sustainable way to travel for business.   

We have been tracking the 2023 emissions of worldwide companies from the consulting, technology and pharmaceutical sectors. And we determined a clear leader in reducing corporate flying emissions. To end the suspense: it’s the consulting sector. 

Companies like Deloitte, Capgemini and Arcadis are part of the pacesetting sector which demonstrates the importance of setting clear targets to reduce emissions.

A leader and two laggards

The post 2024 Emission Tracker: Which sector is taking the lead in the race to cut corporate flying emissions? appeared first on Travel Smart.

Sustained business flying reductions can only be ensured through targets. Out of the eleven companies analysed, only four have set a business travel target. Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Novo Nordisk have dropped their emissions by 55%, 52% and 52% respectively. The fourth company with a target, Roche, reduced them by 44%. 

However, most pharmaceutical companies haven’t committed to business flying reductions yet, and as a result of that in 2023, the travel emissions of those without targets started to creep back towards pre-covid levels. This includes UCB, Novartis, Bayer and Sanofi. Grifols did reduce its emissions last year, but there is no guarantee that this trend will continue as it hasn’t set a target.

Global pharmaceutical companies have a high responsibility to reduce business travel emissions, as they are seen as leaders in innovation due to their essential role in the context of health pandemics, and in light of increasing attention to the serious health risks from plane pollution to millions of people living around airports.

This analysis is the third of its kind the Travel Smart Campaign publishes. In July, Travel Smart found that business travel emissions of global consultancies were down by 46% compared to 2019 levels. In September, the campaign also revealed that technology companies had dropped their emissions by 49%. But the consulting sector is much more advanced when it comes to setting business travel reduction targets. 12 out of the 15 consultancies analysed had set a business flying objective, whereas only 7 in 26 tech companies have done so. 

However, both sectors have a common factor: top flyers without targets [1]. Neither Accenture nor KPMG International among the consultancies nor Alphabet (parent company of Google) and Microsoft in the tech sector have ensured a sustained reduction of their emissions by setting targets. And that is again the case in the pharmaceutical sector, with the novelty that Johnson & Johnson and Merck are actually making the whole sector lag behind in business flying reduction because of their outsized flying. 

“Top flyers should be leading by example, not watering down efforts to reduce business flying. What we’re seeing in the pharmaceutical sector is an extreme case of large polluters hampering  the sector’s progress towards flying less, but we’ve seen that story some other times. Johnson and Johnson, Merck and other large polluters must put limits on their flying, and they must do it now”, Denise Auclair, head of the Travel Smart campaign at T&E, explains.

Notes to editor

[1] The Travel Smart yearly ranking analyses how the largest companies across the world are performing on commitments to reduce corporate air travel emissions. The 25 businesses with more emissions that haven’t set a target yet are included in the “top flyers” group.

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Only 7 out of the 26 tech companies analyzed have set a specific travel emissions target. These targets are the only guarantee to avoid that emissions rise again to pre-pandemic levels. 

Among the worst performers are Alphabet (the parent company of Google) and Apple which are yet to set targets and whose travel emissions are on a trajectory to quickly return to 2019 levels, at only -23% and -31% respectively in 2023. 

On the other hand, India’s tech giant Wipro, a company which set a target of -55% by 2030, increased its reduction to -71%. This demonstrates the importance of target setting and other companies should be well advised to follow this path, the Travel Smart Campaign explains. 

This analysis is the second of its kind the Travel Smart Campaign publishes. In July, Travel Smart found that business travel emissions of global consultancies were down by 46% compared to 2019 levels. Although both sectors are on a positive path towards reaching the -50% reduction objective the Travel Smart Campaign for, 12 out of 15 consultancies analysed had set a target. These include PwC, EY and Deloitte.

Global tech companies have a high responsibility to reduce business travel emissions, as their CEOs often claim to be climate leaders and their companies brag about providing clients with the remote technologies that can serve as alternatives to high-emission travel. Top flyers without targets including SAP, IBM and Microsoft risk moving back towards their 2019 emissions levels if no specific reduction goals are set in place.

“Tech companies have claimed to be climate leaders for a long time and many have substantially reduced their business travel emissions, but if they want to be credible they must set reduction targets. How can Sundar Pichai say that Google is progressing to a sustainable future when its travel emissions are going in the wrong direction?”, Denise Auclair, corporate travel manager at T&E, explains.

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Key information

• Title: Carbon Budgets Masterclass: How Swiss Re Achieved More Than 50% Reduction in Air Travel Emissions 
• Date: 17 July 2024
• Host: Adam Braun, Co-founder and CEO of Clarasight 
• Participants: Andreas Gisler, Head of Travel Management and Leopoldo Gorla Senior Environmental Management Specialist at Swiss Re; Denise Auclair, Travel Smart Campaign Manager at Transport & Environment 
• Watch the webinar here.

Source: This timeline is from Swiss Re’s presentation  

Questions & Answers (Q&A)

Swiss Re

We know this is a collaborative journey, can you provide an overview of who have been the key stakeholders driving the commitment to your travel emissions reduction, and why this is important to them given their roles?

In our case, the main commitment came directly from our senior management, the group Executive Committee, which is also responsible for the implementation of our group sustainability strategy. This has been a key element that helped the whole organisation to build the strategy, develop the necessary tools and also deliver on the commitments. It also supported collaboration between the sustainability and travel teams.  

Can you clarify what was the tipping point that you believe most helped get internal adoption to move to develop carbon budgets in particular?

The tipping point was the realisation in 2018 that the measures implemented in previous years didn’t really work – travel emissions were still going up. The senior management came to the conclusion that something else was needed. Therefore, it was decided to set a reduction target and implement a carbon budget that is coupled with our internal carbon price.

You’ve clearly built in-house software to enable forward-looking planning, ongoing analysis and custom carbon budget reporting – how long did this take and which capabilities unlocked the greatest transformation? 

It took us a couple of years to get where we are today. We consolidated our travel agency landscape and the first iteration of the dashboard was available in 2018. It really helped a lot to have one single global travel agency in place with whom we speak and who provides our data. The key element is definitely the dashboard, which is also a self-service option for the line managers and cost controllers, and also key to keep the travel community engaged.   

I’m sure you experienced resistance and may still today, what were the biggest obstacles you faced and how have you navigated that resistance? Is there anything you’d encourage others who want to implement similar strategies like a carbon budget?

We implemented the carbon budget just before we set our first target in 2020 when the pandemic started. The travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic helped because we were forced to stop travelling. And it proved to us that we could do business without travelling a lot. 

There are some corporate trips that are necessary for business purposes, and we don’t aim to stop travelling nor to reduce to a level that isn’t sustainable financially for the company. But we managed to avoid all those unnecessary trips that were happening in the past. Therefore, we kept some of these pandemic learnings to keep our emissions low. 

Were there any notable strategies or communication approaches that proved effective in gaining support from different departments or leadership levels?

An important thing is to have the data available to show to the senior management what needs to be done and also what are the outcomes of implementing those measures.

The tipping point was the realisation in 2018 that the measures implemented in previous years didn’t really work - travel emissions were still going up. The senior management came to the conclusion that something else was needed. Therefore, it was decided to set a reduction target and implement a carbon budget that is coupled with our internal carbon price.

Leopoldo Gorla

Senior Environmental Management Specialist at Swiss Re

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