Corporates with the “most stringent” greenhouse gas reduction targets have nearly halved their emissions from air travel over a four-year period, according to the latest Travel Smart report from Transport and Environment (T&E).
The fourth annual report, compiled by T&E and its partners, ranks the sustainability efforts of 326 major corporations across Europe, North America and India based on 11 indicators, which cover their emissions output, reduction targets and reporting around air travel between 2019 and 2023.
Industry leaders
The companies best targeting air travel emissions according to Transport & Environment's Travel Smart study (grade and score in brackets)
- Swiss Re (A/14)
- Zurich Insurance Group (A/14)
- Novo Nordisk (A/13)
- ABN Amro (A/12.5)
- Abrdn (A/12)
- Arcadis NV (A/12)
- Fidelity International (A/12)
- Antea Nederland (A/12)
- Ericsson (A/12)
- Radobank (A/11)
- Mapfre (A/11)
- AstraZeneca (A/11)
- Oracle (A/11)
- Lloyds Banking Group (A/11)
- LTIMindtree (A/11)
- Publicis Groupe (A/11)
- Pfizer (A/11)
- Adobe (A/11)
- Wipro (A/11)
- Credit Agricole (A/11)
T&E found that overall air travel emissions by large corporates fell by 34 per cent between 2019 and 2023. But it added that the “main obstacle to progress” remained the fact that 44 per cent of the 326 firms still had no specific business travel target “putting overall progress at risk”.
The report revealed that those companies which established specific air travel targets were able to reduce their emissions from flights by an average of 48 per cent from 2019 to 2023. Some companies such as top-ranking SwissRe and Zurich Insurance Group managed to cut these emissions by two-thirds over this period.
Those firms that have created wider business travel targets, including other modes of transport, have reduced their emissions by 41 per cent between 2019 and 2023, while those that include travel within a broader corporate reduction target have seen a drop in emissions of 35 per cent.
Conversely, companies with no targets for their business travel emissions have only reduced emissions from air travel by 28 per cent over the four-year period measured.
Denise Auclair, head of Travel Smart, said: “The shift towards purposeful travel and flying less is clear. Many companies are doing it successfully while remaining competitive.
“However, some laggards are putting overall progress at risk. It’s time for high polluters that don’t have a target to follow the lead set by others. Keeping business flying emissions low is one of the fastest and simplest solutions for corporations to meet sustainability goals and be attractive places to work.”
All companies featured in the report are awarded an A, B, C or D grade, with 21 achieving the top A status this year. An A grading illustrates that the organisation has high levels of reporting on airline emissions from business travel and has set rigorous reduction targets, as well as achieving a reduction in emissions between 2019 and 2023.
Among those to improve their rankings this year compared with 2024 were consulting firms SGS, Arthur D Little, LTIMindtree and Roland Berger.
“Specific targets are essential for the climate responsibility of companies to successfully reduce their business travel emissions,” added Auclair. “Leading companies have shown that the combination of specific targets together with a toolbox of strategies to reduce flying is working and makes good business sense.”
- Read details of Travel Smart's previous reports in 2024, 2023 and 2022.