Podcast: Claire Turner on sustainability in corporate travel

As the corporate travel industry grapples with environmental concerns and new regulations, travel managers must take a more active role in driving change for their travelers and travel programs.

For the seventh episode of The Travel Is a Human Emotion Podcast, Spotnana VP of Business Development for Content Distribution Johnny Thorsen spoke with Claire Turner, former travel manager at HSBC and Director at Deciduous Consulting, about the evolution of sustainability in business travel.

Turner discussed the relationship between sustainability and price, how travelers can be trusted to do the right thing, and why the travel industry needs to start investing in green outcomes today.

The biggest lever for change

Turner emphasized that while sustainability is becoming increasingly important, there hasn’t yet been a major shift in how companies select preferred suppliers based on environmental performance. She predicts that the true inflection point will come when there is a significant cost associated with carbon emissions. This financial impact will likely drive more concrete action and policy changes within organizations.

“The inflection point is going to be when [travel has a carbon cost] each time,” said Turner. “I think it will be sooner than people realize, whether it’s an internal levy that a particularly forward thinking sustainability department imposes, or whether it’s externally imposed by a regulator.

“The third way it’s going to come is when we get to public net-zero commitments, because people are going to have to pay for the gap. For their residual emissions to be net zero, they’re going to have to offset, in some way, those residual emissions.”

In the meantime, Turner encourages travel managers to engage in ongoing conversations with suppliers about their sustainability efforts, tracking progress over time and maintaining pressure for continuous improvement. By working collaboratively, she believes the industry can move forward together on this critical issue at a faster pace.

“The cost is coming,” said Turner. “There are some really great strategies that are super available to implement. What about a shadow price of carbon to use as an awareness and education tool for what it really costs to take some of these trips? I think we need to move beyond, go or don’t go [on a trip].”

Trusting travelers

It’s important to trust travelers to make responsible decisions regarding sustainability. Turner believes that providing clear information and guidelines empowers employees to consider the environmental impact of their travel choices.

More robust reporting, and the ability to display the carbon impacts of individual fares to travelers when they are shopping for travel, will help companies achieve more sustainable travel outcomes.

“People are independent grownups, they can make good choices,” said Turner. “They just need to know how they’re performing against their peers. If you are blowing your carbon budget and you are not being as efficient as your arch rival in the next sales team, then it’s going to motivate your behavior.

“There are some really straightforward things to do in terms of exposing [sustainability data] down to a more granular level than I think traditional reporting gets you to.” 

Building a community

When considering the wider travel industry, it’s important for stakeholders to begin the process of improving sustainability now.

“[For airlines, for example,] it’s about making moves in Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) now for later because it’s not going to happen without the industry signaling demand now,” said Turner. By fostering a community of stakeholders committed to sustainability, the industry can drive innovation and accelerate progress. Travel managers play a crucial role in this process, serving as advocates for change within their organizations and liaising with suppliers to promote sustainable practices.

“I think the TMCs can provide [progress],” said Turner. “I think independent tech can provide it. We should all be challenging each other. ”

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