Business travellers in the UK prioritise cost and convenience over environmental concerns when booking travel, according to the latest research commissioned by payments specialist Emburse.
The research, conducted in May by Censuswide, surveyed 1,003 employees and 254 employers and found that only one in six employees cited sustainability as their key priority when making travel plans, significantly below cost (31 per cent), traveller convenience (27 per cent) and loyalty and rewards programmes (21 per cent).
Only 26 per cent of employees said they would proactively cut down on travel to reduce their carbon footprint.
Nevertheless, 71 per cent of employees said their employer should do more to enable sustainable travel and 76 per cent also agreed they would take a more sustainable mode of transport if financial incentives or sustainability programmes were available.
According to the report, 38 per cent of businesses reported increased investment in sustainability, while 71 per cent currently have a formal sustainability policy or guidelines in place. However, only 37 per cent of these businesses actively enforce these policies during bookings and travel expense approvals.
Additionally, 43 per cent are considering implementing initiatives and incentives (such as travel budget incentives, cycle to work schemes and remote training) to encourage sustainable travel, while 25 per cent of businesses do not have a sustainable travel policy and six per cent don’t plan to implement one.
“It’s promising that more organisations are putting sustainability guidelines and policies into place, but this data shows we still have a long way to go until it becomes a priority,” said Jeroen van Velzen, SVP travel and mobility at Emburse.
“Whilst travel managers could strictly enforce their companies’ policies to help achieve carbon goals, this heavy-handed approach risks alienating travelling employees,” he added.
“Educating travellers about the impact of their trips in easy-to-understand terms – like how many houses could be powered by the energy used on a trip – can lead to much higher levels of compliance. Employers need to provide employees with tools to make smarter decisions and employees need to use that insight to make more environmentally friendly travel plans. We need to move beyond paying lip service to environmental issues and turn good intent into meaningful action,” he said.
According to Emburse, employee demand for sustainable travel incentives has risen 19 per cent since 2021, when it last conducted its sustainability survey.
Data from 2021 also revealed one in nine (11 per cent) employers had listed sustainability as an important factor for business travel.