5 Ways to Make Your Business Trip Eco-Friendly
For many, business travel is an important and necessary part of work life. Getting face time is a great way to connect with remote colleagues, new or long standing clients and other business constituents. It’s valuable experience and often a reward for hard work, a demonstration of trust and a major perk -- traveling on the company dime! Woo hoo!
No matter what industry you work in, it’s likely business trips are involved and planning may be out of your control. The good news is that many companies are going greener and working on minimizing their environmental impact. However, if your company isn’t quite on the eco-friendly travel page, show some impressive initiative by suggesting some of these more sustainable practices to replace protocol!
Choose an Eco-Friendly Hotel -- Take a look at your budget and use the Earth Regarded Hospitality Map or other online resources to find hotels in your destination that prioritize sustainability. If you have a client-serves job, you may be on the hook for booking the client’s accommodations as well, so it’s a great opportunity to spread the world and get more sustainable hotels on their radars too! If your company chooses to stick to a specific hotel chain that isn’t as environmentally friendly as others (most of them are working on it though!) choose a location close to your meetings, public transit and restaurants of choice, which brings me to my next point…
Make Environmentally Friendly Restaurant Choices - One way to know that a restaurant has a reduced carbon footprint is if it uses locally-sourced ingredients that had to travel a minimal distance to the kitchen and onto your plate, and it will probably be the the best meal you'll have on the trip thus impressing your clients and/or boss. Farm-to-table restaurants are great for delicious, seasonal and sustainable meals. When making menu selections, opt for a red-meat free entree or plant-based items.
Come Prepared - This is great sustainability advice, but also great business advice. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ridden around NYC in the back of a gas-guzzling SUV when we’d have to stop at Duane Reade for snacks, mints, water, toothpaste, a pair of wearable Christmas-themed reindeer horns (true story) -- all of which are rife with single-use plastic (the worst!) and come in a plastic bag (also the worst!). Before your next trip, have a brainstorm meeting with your colleagues and anticipate all of the items you or your client could possibly need and pack them in reusable containers. Great sources for these items are the Package Free Shop or the Sustainable Travel Store. Just imagine how special your client will feel when you gift them their very own reusable coffee cup along with their morning coffee order!
Purchase Carbon Offsets - Advocate for your company to purchase carbon off-sets for all out-of-office travel. Doing so will allow your business to call all of its travel “carbon neutral” - adding another feather in their cap to attract young professionals from the Greta Thunberg generation. It will also incentivize business travelers to choose methods of travel that reduce the cost of said carbon offsets (i.e. traveling economy over business class, or renting a hybrid vs an SUV) .
Telecommute - The most eco-friendly business trip is the one you ultimately don’t take at all. With all of the technology that exists today, telecommuting into important meetings is more accessible than ever. I have a friend who works at a major tech company, and one of her colleagues doesn’t even live in the same city. Instead, he powers around the office on a robot attached to a screen that broadcasts his face! Welcome to 2020 guys, the future is here.
