Consolidated U.S. TMC: CWT

Pharmaceutical company Novartis saw U.S.-booked air spend fall from $100 million in 2019 to $12 million in 2020 and again to $8 million in 2021, according to a BTN estimate. Net sales in 2021 climbed from $49 billion to $52 billion, while the workforce reduced from 106,000 to 104,000. 

Recovery in travel volume may be checked by  major changes to the business. In June 2022, Novartis announced it would eliminate up to 8,000 jobs, equivalent to 7 percent of its workforce, by 2024. In August, the company said it will divest Sandoz, its generics business. 

Reported emissions caused by business travel plummeted from 191,000 metric tons in 2019 to 22,000 in 2020, then moved back upwards to 35,500 in 2021. However, Novartis had changed its reporting methodology in two ways. First, it started measuring train, car rental and hotel emissions in addition to air emissions. Second, its measurement of air travel emissions now considers radiative forcing, which multiplies the result by a factor of 1.9.