It becomes critical to ensure that you meet with external clients on a regular basis and this usually means venturing out on long road trips or flights for one simple meeting. While it can be essential to undertake business travel, there are things we can all do to ensure that we are reducing it where possible. Here’s a number of methods to implement:
Measure Your Travel Emissions
If you want to be a company that is operating with a sustainable mindset, you need to start considering how much energy you are emitting. You can always do a basic carbon emissions test, but you can also start to think about how much it is costing you. This is not just in terms of business finances but also in terms of other lesser-considered components. For example, if you are sending employees on road trips and there is a major mishap on the road that will mean accident attorneys getting involved, as well as injuries and insurance claims. If you understand your carbon footprint, you can make better decisions in the long run so you can cut down on those non-essential aspects of travel.
Offer Staff Incentives
If you have staff that enjoys being on the road and don’t want to cut down on their travel, you’ve got to balance the needs of the business with the effect it will have on these colleagues. Lots of entrepreneurs thrive being on the road and it gives them that buzz that will translate to far better client relationships. But you may need to counter this by offering incentives such as bonuses to those who can successfully reduce their work miles. Additionally, you could reward sustainable employee behavior through initiatives like competitions. Your team are the people that will give you the best results and therefore ensuring they are on board is critical.
Limit Air Travel Where You Can
As many organizations believe that the best way to do business is to meet clients on their turf, this invariably results in a lot of air miles traveled which is going to have a major impact on your business’s carbon footprint. It might not be possible to reduce air travel but you can reduce the number of people traveling at any one time. This goes back to the idea of your carbon footprint and understanding how you can keep that within a certain limit. This requires you to take a long hard look at how your business can be more efficient. One of the most obvious aspects of minimizing air travel is to incorporate virtual meetings. This is a sore point for many people because they are, frankly, sick to death of the notion of online meetings. However, it is far more possible to have meaningful conversations with clients these days because of how technology is improving all the time. It saves time, money and will have a positive impact on your carbon footprint.
Reducing business travel is a significant aspect of how businesses can improve their overall carbon footprint, but it’s also fundamental to how it alters their business mindset. If you reduce business travel, you can reduce expenditure and benefit the planet and employees at the same time.
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