Hello and thank you for accessing our mini-session, Top 5 Answers
to Your Sustainable Travel Questions in 15 Minutes.
This session is part of our Timely Topics Education Series
which includes education and resources designed to speak to
the current business environment.
I'm your host Naomi and I have a few quick items
to review before we get started.
First, everything you see on your screen
is movable and resizable using the arrows in the corners.
If you have any questions about today's content,
you can submit them through the Q&A widget
that can be found at the bottom of your screen
and we'll be sure to get back to you via email.
We also have additional resources and links to
support today's session in the Resources widget that looks like a folder,
so be sure to check that out.
And finally, to help guide us on future topics,
we ask that you complete a quick survey at the close of the session.
You can find it in the widget that looks like a clipboard.
Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to hand it off to our speaker
for today's mini-session, Amy Taylor.
Thank you, Naomi.
So, as Naomi said, my name is Amy Taylor.
I've been in the industry for almost 30 years,
working on both the buyer and the supply side.
It's my pleasure to spend the next 15 minutes
talking with you about sustainability.
As business begins moving and corporate travel
ramps up, the importance of sustainability
continues to grow.
Organizations of all industries and sizes are recognizing
that attentively managing their environmental impact
isn't just about being responsible, it's about being successful,
it's about being efficient, it's about attracting and retaining
both customers and employees.
Because running a more sustainable business
can help make your business more profitable,
and your travel program can help.
In the next few minutes, we'll tackle five simple,
but significant questions about sustainable travel
that reinforce why sustainable travel matters.
Emphasize why now is the time to start diving in.
Highlight what's possible and what you can do
within your current program.
How to communicate with employees and what specifically you should share.
What other value you can expect for your organization.
Alright, let's start with
why sustainable travel is something you, your organization
and your program should care about.
We know sustainability overall matters to customers,
shareholders, communities and more.
And we know travel is a critical part of it.
How can we be so sure?
Because companies are willing to invest.
We just completed research with travel decision
makers and travelers across EMEA and the story is pretty interesting.
Almost all organizations, 98%, were prepared to commit additional
investments over
and above their current travel management
budget to tackle the issue.
Yet approximately 6 out of 10 professionals openly acknowledge
that they did not feel suitably equipped and enabled
to implement sustainable travel policies successfully.
And because the
issue is important to business travelers, it needs to matter to business.
Almost all business travelers, 97%,
are prepared to invest extra journey time in pursuit
of more sustainable options.
And 79% of travelers aged between 25 and 39
would be more inclined to work for a company
that prioritizes sustainability.
So the bottom line is, business travel sustainability matters.
Because it's the right thing to do, it's better for business
and critical to engaging the workforce
that will define your future.
So if we know it's important, why do we know now is the time to do it?
Well, there's a couple of key reasons.
First, you're already re-evaluating your travel
policies.
As travel begins moving again, safety protocols and steps are going
to have to be built into your process to cover things like
pre-trip approval to ensure travel is absolutely necessary
and planned in a safe manner.
Communicate PPE and other requirements per airport and destination city.
Establish and manage
post-trip quarantine protocols before employees can
and should return to yours or your customer's
offices.
With that work already being done, making sustainability adjustments now
just makes sense.
Second, you're
already doing work to get your data in order.
The traveler safety and tracking requirements of traveling
in a COVID-19 era require organizations to close
any gaps in their travel data.
And that data is what's critical
to managing sustainability well.
In fact, our recent survey shows the link
between effective data management and sustainability.
82% of companies with exceptional data management processes
consider themselves to have highly sustainable corporate travel policies.
Now that we covered why it's time to take action now,
let's look at what action you can and should take.
The good news is that there are steps you can take
within your existing SAP Concur solution to help
your organization make travel more sustainable.
It starts at the planning phase, where you can
use the Concur request audit rules engine and leveraging the large set of criteria,
configure a wide variety of rules.
You can educate and communicate key messages to
the employees as soon as they plan a trip by leveraging the configurable company
notes area on the Concur homepage.
As travelers shop for travel options, they can see
and sort flight options by emissions, as you can see here.
You can also highlight what hotels offer electronic receipts,
reducing unnecessary paper.
Point users to hybrid options as they choose rental cars.
Recommend train options that have better footprints than aircraft.
And interestingly, when you think about the total cost of the
trip, very often this can also save, make you financial savings as well.
You can also use partner technology to make
shopping for sustainable travel options easier.
Partners like RootRank who help shop by finding
the right door-to-door itinerary and then consume
the request API to generate an always complete travel request.
As travelers book, you can
point them to preferred suppliers that meet your travel
sustainability goals.
Give travelers visual confirmation that what they've booked is okay.
Configuring rules to display a message to give employees recognition
and motivation to adhere to sustainable policy.
Highlight hotel options that feature strong sustainability
commitments and policies.
I recommend travel alternatives to redirect same-day trips, for example,
comparing the flight cost with a web conference cost.
From an expense perspective, we talked about eReceipts earlier,
but did you know eReceipts
can be enabled for many more suppliers with all the same benefits?
It's quite easy to do and can not only cut down on paper,
but bring data directly into your system to reduce the work
for your employees and increase the accuracy of the information.
Additionally, while many companies are now on a path to manage their own
global carbon offset program, many haven't yet started
this process or are too small to dedicate resources to it.
With ConcurExpense, you can enable employees
to expense carbon offset spend as a way to compensate
for your company's business travel emissions
while satisfying employees' values.
And finally, as you analyze your spending,
you can enlist employees in the sustainability cause,
using the TripIt Pro app to show their air travel carbon emissions,
as well as provide ideas on how to reduce or offset that impact.
Tap into platform partners like Scope5 that deliver greenhouse gas
footprint reports for air, rail, car
and also ground transportation.
Or Jet Set Offset that integrates
with your SAP Concur data to deliver real-time tracking
to measure avoided travel and greener choices,
as well as a donation platform that allows companies to donate one cent
per mile to climate-focused non-profit
organizations.
Use SAP Concur reporting to deliver monthly,
quarterly and
annual reviews on your carbon emissions from corporate travel.
And you can dive into the details to analyze emissions by employee,
department, route, country,
or any other category you like, while also getting insight into trends
like rental car use per city to decide if you should promote greener
options like ride sharing or public transit.
Like many things, communication is critical to embracing
a sustainable travel strategy.
And our research shows that travel decision makers have seen
internal communication campaigns be an effective way to inspire change.
So what do you need to say and share with your team?
First, emphasize the importance
of corporate sustainability.
Remind them that 5% of the world's carbon emissions come from travel.
Business travel makes up 30% of all travel.
Next, get them thinking
about sustainability over convenience, and our research shows that
travelers are ready for this message, with 34% of travelers
happy to give between two and four hours of their time,
while 26% would increase their journey time
by four to eight hours for more sustainable options.
Finally, get specific about the initiatives you
want to feature and make a campaign.
Highlight one per week or month.
Offer incentives for participation.
Showcase winners to inspire others and reward performance.
Employees, investors,
regulators and communities support organizations
that recognize that doing good is good for business.
They want to work with, invest in and be connected to businesses
with tangible action and quantifiable results to back up
environmental promises.
SAP Concur can help
you prove your sustainability program
has meaning.
You can show real numbers and track your progress.
And you can equip yourself to be ready as environmental, regulatory
and reporting requirements get defined.
It's a simple way to offer tangible proof that your organization is committed
to driving down your carbon emissions, minimizing your environmental impact,
and making a measurable difference to make our world better.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Amy.
If you would like to check out additional resources
available within the Timely Topics Education Series,
please be sure to click through the link that could be found in the
resources widget.
And as a final reminder, please complete the survey before you go.
Thank you so much for joining us.