On top of the traditional corporate level benefits, could travel policies include higher level strategic universal values? Could some new elements be incorporated into the travel policy so that it could provide help towards more positive world development?
"It is absolutely the right time now due to the pandemic downtime to add sustainability goal concept in travel policy to make our world better", commented Adriana Nainggolan, Asia Travel Manager of Autodesk. She added: "The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) can be considered, e.g. clean energy travel vendors to be appointed".
Five years ago, United Nations Member States passed a resolution agreeing to adopt 17 meaningful goals called 'The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)' as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which set out a 15-year plan to achieve the goals.
This is a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere. Since 1960 when the new concept of a "Global Village" was created, it has continued to gain traction and expand around the world. Hence, each individual in society has an important role to play in our 'Global Village'.
By deep-diving discussions of SDG in the coming editions of Bow-Tie Briefing, we aim to further reiterate how our corporate travel industry can be more proactive in contributing towards a better world by applying some of the 17 SDGs (the below infographic illustrates all 17 SDGs). For full details of the goals, please refer to the United Nations website.
We will commence with Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 7 in this edition:
- SDG 3 - good health and well-being
"Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages is essential to sustainable development". Currently, the world is facing a global health crisis unlike any other - COVID-19 is spreading human suffering, destabilising the global economy and upending the lives of billions of people around the globe. Simply by further ameliorating our corporate travel policy, together we can add value globally. Actions can be levied such as: Formalising the implementation of social distancing during business trips; officially requesting innovative measures from travel suppliers via RFPs; applying more touchless business travel processes e.g. touchless airline and hotel check-in…etc. All these tiny corporate travel additional measures enable the mitigation of health and safety risk for travellers and local communities.
- SDG 7 - affordable and clean energy
Energy is central to nearly every major challenge and opportunity". According to the UN, there are encouraging signs that energy is becoming more sustainable and widely available. Access to electricity in poorer countries has begun to accelerate, energy efficiency continues to improve and renewable energy is making impressive gains in the electricity sector. Nowadays, many hotels are installing solar panels to help them to become more energy self-sufficient. Simply by encouraging more hotels to follow suit and via appropriate hotel RFPs to select this kind of clean energy hotels where possible, this goal can be realised.
Another United Nations specialist agency, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), broadened the horizons of SDGs and cultivated the 'Sustainable Tourism Development Guidelines'. Sustainable tourism development requires the informed participation of all relevant stakeholders, as well as strong political leadership to ensure wide participation and consensus building.
Achieving sustainable tourism is a continuous process and it requires constant monitoring of impacts and introducing the necessary preventive and/or corrective measures whenever necessary. This UNWTO website takes you to the details of the guidelines.
As a preview, in the forthcoming two issues of this column we will continue to discuss a few more UN Sustainable Development Goals that can be applicable to our beloved corporate travel industry. My personal strong belief is, if each of us pays a little bit more attention, our world can be developed healthier than ever?!
Bow-Tie Briefing shares the views of Benson Tang, a corporate travel thought leader and executive director of the Corporate Travel Community (CTC). Benson's remarkable career in travel started more than 25 years ago and his extensive knowledge of the corporate travel sector has made him a sought-after speaker and lecturer.