Business travel can be important for relationship building – but it also adds to your business carbon footprint. The aim isn’t to stop travelling; it’s to travel when it genuinely adds value, choose lower-carbon options, and make those choices straightforward for everyone. Read on for practical ways to implement an achievable reduction in business travel emissions.
1) Start with virtual as the default
Before any booking, ask if the same outcome can be achieved with a video call, a recorded demo or collaborative docs. Treat this as a real decision, not a checkbox: note the business reason if travel is still needed. Bring clients into the conversation early. Do they want you on site, or would they prefer to minimise the footprint and meet virtually? Agreeing expectations together avoids unnecessary trips and saves time on both sides.
2) Create a sustainable travel policy – using the transport hierarchy
Set a simple order of choices so people know the rules and what to prioritise. Make this policy visible where decisions happen – in booking tools, guidance pages and budgets – so lower-carbon options are the obvious first choice. Clear, visible rules reduce debate and help people act consistently.
Free resources to get you starter: Seedling – Sustainable Transport Hierarchy and Seedling – Business Travel Policy Template.
3) Choose rail for short and medium distances – and phase out domestic flights
Door-to-door, rail is often comparable in time once you include airport transfers and buffers – and it’s typically far lower carbon. As a rule of thumb, if a journey is around six hours or less by train, make rail the expected choice. Many organisations go further and eliminate domestic flights where a practical rail option exists. Help this happen with route suggestions, booking tips and disruption plans. Night trains can replace a flight plus hotel, often saving both emissions and cost.
4) If flying is unavoidable, reduce what you can control
Sometimes flying is unavoidable. When it is, choose economy (lower emissions per passenger than premium cabins) and look for direct services (fewer take-offs/landings and less distance). These are simple, fair rules that cut emissions without adding friction.
5) Plan ahead to combine trips
One well-planned visit usually beats several separate ones. Group meetings in the same city or region and coordinate with colleagues in advance so you cover more in a single itinerary. Fewer trips mean lower emissions, less admin and less fatigue.
6) Use public transport for the first and last mile
Even when you fly or take the train, emissions and costs creep in through solo car rides to and from hubs. Default to metro, tram or bus where they’re reliable. Make it practical: publish short arrival guides for your key cities – routes, ticket tips, typical travel times – and make these modes the easiest to expense.
7) Share rides when cars are unavoidable
Sometimes a car is the only workable option. In those cases, share it. Pool taxis to and from airports and venues, and add a ride-share note to meeting invites (“Leaving from X at Y – reply if you want to share”). Back it up with a small incentive: reimburse shared rides in full, while solo rides need a brief justification. This keeps convenience without normalising one-person cars.
8) Make EVs easy: salary-sacrifice and pool cars
Switching the cars you do use matters. Offer salary-sacrifice EV schemes to frequent travellers and keep a small pool of EVs for common routes that aren’t rail-friendly. Make availability obvious in your booking tools and share charger maps so drivers aren’t hunting on the day. The goal is simple: the lower-carbon option should be the fastest route to “booked”.
9) Align clients and suppliers on travel expectations
A lot of travel happens because “that’s how we’ve always done it”. Reset the norm by setting expectations with clients and suppliers early: virtual by default, rail preferred for in-person, and no unnecessary trips. Offer remote workshops and hybrid formats as standard. Include a short statement in onboarding packs and statements of work so everyone understands the plan from day one. Most partners value the clarity.
10) Incentivise, track and report
People respond to feedback and fairness. Add small, visible incentives for lower-carbon choices – for example, a slightly higher per-diem on rail days, or simple recognition in team updates. Set carbon budgets alongside financial ones so teams can see both cost and impact. Most importantly, measure travel emissions and report them monthly by mode, route, cabin class and team. Share trends, not just totals, so progress is visible. Use high-quality offsets only for what you can’t avoid; focus on reduction first.
How to measure business travel emissions – clear and workable
Collect the right activity data. For flights, capture origin, destination and cabin class for each journey segment. For rail, record kilometres travelled or ticket types you can map to distance. For taxis and ride-hail, log the number of trips and, where possible, vehicle type (EV vs petrol/diesel). For car rentals and pool cars, capture fuel type and approximate distance. Include hotel nights for completeness, but remember that mode choice – especially flights – usually dominates.
Automate where possible. Implement a travel booking portal that captures this activity data at source – flight segments, rail tickets, car type and taxi trips – so you’re not deciphering receipts or managing via spreadsheets later. Reliable, consolidated data will make reporting faster and more accurate.
Apply suitable emissions factors. Use current, credible factors for each mode. The biggest multipliers are cabin class and routing for flights, vehicle and fuel type for cars, and standard factors for rail and public transport. Keep factors consistent within a reporting period so changes reflect behaviour, not methodology.
Attribute emissions where decisions happen. Report by team, traveller, route and client so patterns are obvious. A few simple metrics help people engage: emissions per trip, per meeting or per £ of revenue, rather than a long list of numbers.
Further resources:
Sustainable Transport Hierarchy - an easy to use, structered approach to lower carbon business travel planning.
Business Travel Policy Template - free, ready-to-go business travel policy to tweak and share with your team.
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