Green business travel takes a back seat to cost cutting for most companies

Companies’ commitment to improved Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is no passing fad, according to the latest annual opinion poll by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) and KDS , the European leader in on-demand travel and expense systems. However, “green” forms of business travel are suffering in the recession, as organizations prioritize cost-saving over supporting sustainable travel.

The survey found that companies see cost-cutting as the top business travel concern (rated a high priority by 79% of companies), while environmentally sustainable travel is a high priority for only 17%. Overall, environmental sustainability is rated only a mid-level priority for business travel, ranked at this level by 48% of organizations.

This is the fourth consecutive year that ACTE and KDS have gauged business opinion on issues around CSR and business travel. The latest survey was conducted between December 2008 and January 2009 and captured the opinions of 329 travel managers and business travellers from around the world, the largest-ever response to an ACTE/KDS survey and a 52% increase from last year’s respondents.

Yves Weisselberger, CEO of KDS, commented, “At this stage, green travel choices remain scarce and are usually more expensive. For example, European companies can send their staff by high speed rail, which is low in emissions but often more expensive than a low-cost flight. However, in the current economy, paying a premium is hard to justify, so green business travel will lose out. Longer term, though, the picture is brighter – companies clearly want to do the right thing through CSR, so once the financial premium is erased, or the economy permits, we should expect to see green business travel become far more popular.”

Greater concern about our impact on the environment appears to be more of a European phenomenon. Only 35% of US respondents said they would consider their carbon emissions when planning business travel, compared to 42% of Europeans.

Meanwhile, the United States has already seen a greater focus on cost-cutting in the travel budget, suggesting that the situation in Europe may well worsen during 2009. Overall, 70% of respondents said their company has sought reductions in the travel budget to save money, but for US organizations the figure was 80%. Similarly, while 54% of respondents said they had been asked to cut their number of business trips because of the economic crisis, for US respondents the figure was 64%.

A copy of the full report may be downloaded from the KDS website here (http://www.kds.com/en/green-business-travel-at-risk-in-the-recession).

About ACTE
The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) represents the global business travel industry through its international advocacy efforts, executive level educational programs, and independent industry research. ACTE’s membership consists of senior travel industry executives from 82 countries. With the support of sponsors from every major segment of the business travel industry, ACTE develops and delivers educational programs in key business centers throughout the world. ACTE has representation in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Middle East and the United States.

For more information on ACTE, please go to www.acte.org.

About KDS
KDS on demand travel & expense offers a completely integrated solution for travel and expense management, addressing essential needs ranging from travel policy definition and enforcement, to online travel self-booking, to automated travel expense processing and beyond. Every critical procedure can be completed through the KDS ASP offering, resulting in greater efficiencies and associated financial benefits. In addition, KDS offers the most extensive back-end connectivity to airline, car, rail and hotel providers in the industry, ensuring optimized pricing and up-to-the-minute inventory control.

For more information, visit www.kds.com.