Ten reasons to choose more sustainable business travel
Sustainability, Business
At Polon, we felt that business travel used too much energy and took up too much of our time; it was inefficient. So we looked at alternatives to travelling. And we decided to make sure that we use public transport as much as possible and never fly.
Business travel: not glamorous and not essential. Photo: Waldo Jaquith
Do you travel a lot on business? It might be an essential part of your job — it would, of course, be pretty hard to work from home as a milkman. But most of us really don’t need to travel as much as we do. And when we do have to go to a meeting or visit a client, we could choose smarter, more sustainable, ways of getting there — like public transport.
Better for business
Choosing a more sustainable form of transport isn’t just better for the environment, it’s better for our business too. We asked our writers why they like using more sustainable transport, aside from the environmental benefits:
- With free wireless internet on some routes, trains makes great mobile offices.
- We don’t spend half our time in airports.
- Trains drop us in town, within walking distance of clients.
- Walking to the station gives us some exercise in a busy day.
- We don’t miss queuing for security checks and passport control.
- No aeroplane food.
- It’s safer and less stressful than driving.
- We don’t pay congestion charges, parking charges or petrol costs.
- We don’t get jet lag.
- It can be cheaper, if you book ahead.
We use Transport Direct and National Rail Enquiries to plan our bus and train journeys and buy tickets within the UK. Walkit and Google Maps provide walking directions. If you want to travel further afield by rail, check out The Man in Seat Sixty-One.
Smarter transport choices
What difference does choosing a different method of travel actually make? Can opting for trains and buses over planes and cars — known as a modal shift — make business travel sustainable?
Let’s take a typical example for Polon. Suppose one person needs to travel between London and Birmingham for a meeting with a client. This journey is just over 100 miles, so the carbon dioxide emissions for the return journey could be:
Aeroplane 60.4kg
Small Car 44kg
Train 20.8kg
(Source: transportdirect.info)
Taking the train here cuts out 65% of the carbon dioxide emissions of the equivalent flight. And it emits 55% less than driving.
It’s hard to come by good information on this (contact us if you know of any). But we think that if every business in the UK switched all their business flights and work-related car journeys (including taxis) to more sustainable modes like buses, trains and walking or cycling, this could cut carbon emissions from business travel by more than half.
Travel less
Take a close look and it soon becomes clear that travelling smarter really means travelling less. Turning a meeting into a phone call or a video conference dramatically reduces our carbon dioxide emissions and saves a lot of time and money. Passing those savings on to our clients helps them out too.
We use tools like Skype to work collaboratively online. They’re more than enough for most meetings. In fact, the process of setting up a call can help make a meeting more focussed.
Clients also appreciate the flexibility that conference calls give. They can be done without meeting rooms, they’re easier to reschedule if something urgent comes up and there’s no need to send out for coffee and biscuits.
What next? We’ll keep cutting the amount we travel. We’ll use public transport when we do have to go places. And we’ll encourage others to do the same, because we think everyone could benefit from travelling a bit lighter.
Our top tips for cheaper train travel: book ahead online and don’t forget to claim your refund if there’s a delay.