Sabre Travel Network has introduced the
Greenhouse Emission report, a tool that environmentally conscious
corporations can employ to gauge the amount of greenhouse gases
that are produced as a result of their air travel.
We had requests
from several Scandinavian travel management companies for such a
product, said Kathryn Hayden, a Sabre spokeswoman.
Their corporate
customers had been asking for a way to track and measure the impact
of their corporate travel, and they asked if we could help.
Hayden said
developing the report was relatively uncomplicated. After that, she
said, it was a logical step to make it available to customers in
every other region.
The idea isnt
necessarily to persuade employees to bike to meetings instead of
fly, but for corporations to undertake environmentally friendly
programs to offset the harmful impact of carbon dioxide and other
emissions from jet travel.
Each report, which
can be organized by department, date, segment type or cost center,
outlines the number of segments flown over a specified time period,
the distance flown, the amount of fuel burned and the amount of
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses produced.
The emission report
uses an internationally recognized formula to convert other
pollutants produced into carbon dioxide equivalents, Sabre
stated.
Calculations of
emissions produced are based on an aircrafts load, flight profile,
the external temperature, winds and engine or aircraft
characteristics, according to Sabre.
Once the carbon
dioxide emission levels of any travel are quantified, steps can be
taken to offset these through reforestation, purchasing the
equivalent number of carbon credits (the proceeds of which are
plowed back into environmentally beneficial projects) or reducing
the companys carbon footprint by a corresponding amount in other
areas, such as reducing water consumption or lengthening the cycle
over which company cars are renewed, Sabre stated.
Sabre said the
Greenhouse Emission report was compatible with the Turbo Sabre and
MySabre booking platforms, which means that the tool is available
to travel agencies servicing corporate clients but not to
individual travelers using self-booking tools.
Several travel
management companies offer similar reporting tools, including HRG
North America.
We probably are
ahead of the curve on this issue, but its incontrovertible that
there is a significant trend globally toward corporate social
responsibility, with companies keen to do the right thing, Hayden
said.
Environmental
awareness is a big deal in Europe and the Pacific, and increasingly
in the U.S.
To
contact reporter Dennis Schaal, send e-mail to [email protected].