GBTA Sustainability Benchmark Identifies Gaps in Decarbonizing Business Travel, Urges Rapid Corporate Action for Net Zero Targets

• The Global Business Travel Association’s Sustainability Acceleration Challenge reveals a pressing need to quicken the integration of sustainable practices in business travel to meet 2050 Net Zero goals.
• The Challenge’s findings suggest that while progress is being made, a significant acceleration in climate action is required to convert commitments into real impact.

The GBTA Foundation, the Global Business Travel Association’s charitable branch, released its Sustainability Acceleration Challenge findings today. This benchmarking initiative, the first of its kind in the industry, assesses the current state of business travel programs and the measures taken by organizations towards their decarbonization. The findings indicate that significant work lies ahead for organizations to expedite the integration of sustainable practices to effectively reduce their business travel emissions, aligning with corporate Net Zero targets by 2050.

In collaboration with Accenture, the GBTA developed the Sustainability Acceleration Global Benchmark. The benchmark grades the current state of climate action on a maturity score ranging from 0-5, with 0 indicating “no activity” and 5 representing “leading practice” action to mitigate business travel emissions. The overall global sustainability maturity score across all industry sectors is 1.3 out of 5 as of 2024, the Challenge’s first baseline year. This score demonstrates that although some action is being planned and implemented, there is an immediate need to turn these commitments into real impacts.

The Challenge, funded by the GBTA Foundation’s Sustainability Partners, aims to motivate organizations of all sizes and geographies to start, advance, and accelerate the integration of practices to reduce business travel emissions. The Challenge was conducted in September and October, with 241 companies participating, representing a cumulative business travel spend of over $14 billion.

Key findings from the Challenge include notable variations in sustainability scores across different geographical locations and industries. European and global programs are leading with scores of 1.7 and 1.6, respectively, compared to North American programs at 1.0 and APAC programs at 0.7. Sectors such as Finance, Consulting, and Technology scored higher than average, while others like Manufacturing and Transportation/Travel Services lagged significantly behind.

The Challenge also identified areas where organizations are performing well in sustainability. These include evaluating the necessity of trips, tracking business travel emissions, seeking third-party validation for external reduction targets, and including sustainability features in corporate travel booking platforms.

However, the Challenge also highlighted areas for accelerated climate action, such as enhancing employee engagement in travel sustainability, harmonizing demand signals, scaling the market for Sustainable Aviation Fuel certificates, and establishing carbon budgets and fees.

Through the GBTA Sustainability Acceleration Challenge, the GBTA Foundation and Accenture aim to provide actionable insights that enable companies to assess the sustainability maturity of their business travel programs and facilitate tangible action in less mature areas.

Visit GBTA for more details.