Waves of Sustainability

We’ve been here before. Sustainability has previously dominated the discussion.

Back in 2006, when the first real wave started to happen, companies rushed to develop their latest sustainability rhetoric. This was the time of “greenwash” where noise attracted attention, visuals mattered (exhibition booths had green-grass carpets) and the carbon offsetting wild-west was kick-started.

But it didn’t last long. The global credit crisis of 2008 stopped sustainability in its tracks, favoring financial survival. Most of us understood. Money mattered more, that’s just how it was.

Then, in the mid 2010s sustainability started its comeback. Slowly and surely, as businesses and economies started to recover to their former glories, increased climate change and louder, more powerful voices (think: Greta Thunberg's unwavering style) started to drive deeper change and commitments. Climate change moved to climate crisis and even those who had previously denied its importance started to see. But the pace was still slow, and frustrating to those who believed that faster change must happen.

Then the pandemic hit.

The noise stopped, the flowers bloomed and the birds sang. The skies were clear. Whilst we looked up and longed to see those metal birds on their journeys to long-distance places, we also knew things had changed, possibly forever, and that we couldn’t go back.

Now, as we begin to return to the skies, the roads and the rooms, companies are committing to ever-more-challenging sustainability targets, and Scope 3 emissions (which includes travel) are in the line of fire. Leaders have seen what happens when you stop traveling, the good and the bad. Many sense that the 2019 will act as benchmark for over-consumption, that business travel as it returns must be different, must be more purposeful and thought through. They sense that the planet matters as much as their people, and that even if it matters less to them, it matters more to their customers.

Travel buyers are telling us in interviews that “zero up” makes all the difference to their corporations. It’s far easier to control the release of travel than it was to dampen existing demand pre-pandemic. Sustainability is at the core of many of the present, more purposeful approaches to travel program demand.

Of course, we’re likely to see some bounce-back to pre-pandemic levels as the floodgates open. People like travel, many want to travel and travel brings their businesses value. But in the mid to long term, buyers are aligning with their environmental, social governance (ESG) leads, considering the true “need versus the want” of travel and focusing on reducing demand, reducing emissions and balancing people, planet and profit more than ever before.

Recently, one bank’s analyst told us that they monitor the amount of times environment is mentioned on company earnings calls. It was the highest it had ever been in 2019 and they are beginning to see the numbers reach total 2019 levels now—even just half-way through 2021.

The list of CEOs committing to net zero is getting bigger every day. It’s becoming a must-have and even a competitive advantage as companies clamor to provide ever bigger commitments. This will set our travel management landscape. It already is.

Closer to home, our own research shows that 67 percent of buyers want to understand more about the sustainability approach of TMCs in the sourcing process and 89 percent of buyers are more interested in seeing sustainability services from their TMCs. The value chain needs to adjust.

This third wave will likely be the last, as our global carbon budgets are rapidly diminishing, and the impact to our industry deep and transformative. There’s lots of great initiatives in play, from electric cars to sustainable aviation fuel. And a sector which becomes greener is good for us all. But if you thought change was happening fast before, you’ll be shocked at how fast it will move from now on.

Get ready to ride the wave.