Calls for more mentoring, boardroom champions and a photo-library were just some of the many innovative suggestions from the floor of the conference when NBTN members were given an opportunity to air their thoughts on the shape and future activities for the network.
With two question and answer sessions and a dedicated breakout session, delegates enthusiastically seized the opportunity to take to the flip charts and play their part by outlining the strengths and weaknesses of the network and some of the developments they would like to see introduced.
Among the themes coming from membership were suggestions on how to develop the scale and scope of the network, proposals for increased partnerships, requests for more practical resources, changes to language and terminology and a call for a national awareness campaign.
Almost 100 different proposals were set out by the members and a small sample included:
Speaking after another successful conference Director, Heather McInroy, said: “I am absolutely bowled over by the enthusiasm and input from the members and I am delighted at the outcomes from the delegate sessions.
“There were loads of fresh, interesting ideas and proposals which is what I have come to expect from a committed membership who want to make the NBTN work better and spread the message that carbon reduction can make a business or organisation more efficient.
For a full report on each of the speeches, see below.
NBTN work ‘crucial’ for behaviour change
The network’s mission to change travel behaviour will be crucial as technological fixes become exhausted. That was the message from the Department for Transport’s Michael Hurwitz to delegates in the opening presentation to the 2009 NBTN Members’ Conference.
So-called “soft measures” such as influencing individual behaviour and making organisations realise the importance of reducing emissions from transport will be key goals for NBTN and its members to help meet UK emission targets set out in the DfT’s carbon reduction blueprint.
Highlighting the latest thinking in the department’s strategy outlined in recently published documents, The UK Low Carbon Transition Plan and Low Carbon Transport: A Greener Future, Michael said: “It is the technical stuff that is relatively easy and the soft changes that are hard. It comes back to the question. What is going to change people’s behaviour?
“Beyond 2020, there will come a stage where we run out of technical fixes and the behavioural change becomes even more acute. That is why, as we move forward, there is a fundamental importance in the work of NBTN to influence behavioural change and encourage organisations to take this issue more seriously”.
Michael advised that some of the technical and policy foundations along with the strategy documents that had been produced over the last couple of years and gave him grounds for optimism.
He said action plans to make cars up to 40 per cent more efficient, ambitious targets agreed with the aviation industry, plans for a high-speed rail network, investment in electric vehicles, piloting ‘Smarter Choices’ policy at city level, top-up funds for hybrid buses, plans for rail electrification and discussions with the freight industry, gave him a “bullishness” about our ability to meet emissions targets.
But with 38% of car emissions coming from business travel and commuting – nearly four per cent of all the UK’s emissions – and 28 per cent of business trips emanating from the public sector ‘How do we deliver?’ Michael asked NBTN members.
He said it was important to convert these “analytical nuggets” into behavioural motivation. “We might not have the complete policy framework yet but it is important that you and your organisation tell us what are the regulatory and financial rewards that need to be inserted which are both cost-effective and motivating.
“We are very keen to find ways of recognising innovation to make business travel both supportive of commercial perspectives but of carbon too.
“One of the challenges for NBTN is how we are going to measure this and how we are going to take it forward. You all have a genuinely important role to help us work through some of these problems.”
‘Change Direction’, says leading academic
For Professor John Whitelegg, from the Stockholm Environment Institute, we are doing transport decarbonisation all wrong! According to Professor Whitelegg, while travel planning has a useful part to play and the sentiment is commendable, it doesn’t realise the benefits of a more holistic approach that includes planning and fiscal measures along with technological innovation and behaviour change.
“We have got a problem with emissions, it will get worse and the implications for business are serious,” Professor Whitelegg told delegates, “but I am optimistic.”
Taking a holistic approach with comparisons from around Europe, the professor asked why there is just 24 per cent car use in Basel compared to nearly 60 per cent in Nottingham.
“It’s not because Swiss people are genetically programmed to be more intelligent than Brits,” said Professor Whitelegg. “It is because they have identified over many years the combined benefits from high-quality public realm, urban planning and the systematic integration of spatial planning and fiscal planning, the use of technology and proper public transport organisation.
“It is not fragmented, disconnected, deregulated, privatised [like our bus network],” he added.
The professor said while in Britain we use travel planning that hasn’t achieved fundamental modal shift in travel behaviour, they don’t undertake it in many European countries but are able to achieve more noticeable modal change.
Not that he wants to throw the baby out with the bath water. He acknowledges the place that travel plans can play in managing behaviour.
Professor Whitelegg argues that spatial and fiscal measures along with technology and behaviour change are the important levers to decarbonise the transport sector.
He said that the planning system is not functioning because it is focused on regeneration rather than transportation. He argues that closing post offices and letting people choose where their GP is based has increased distances travelled without any thought of transport.
“In Australia the lexicon is different: they talk about ‘tod’, ‘pod’ and ‘god’: transport, pedestrian and green-orientated development. This enhances discussion about walking, cycling and accessibility and de-emphasises the use of private motorised transport.”
In Germany, Professor Whitelegg said fiscal measures, such a haulage tax, have been introduced to gain more efficiency and carbon reductions within the logistics sector. He said that electric, hybrid and hydrogen cars have a role to play in relation to technology gains.
“It is important in a decarbonised transport system to think much more holistically, more integrated and much more systematically, which is why the spatial issue is so important,” Professor Whitelegg said.
Mobility Tsar needed for government travel, urges review
Each government department should appoint a Mobility Communications Manager if it wants to increase cost savings and reduce carbon emissions, a review of government travel has suggested.
Government and its agencies need to move away from looking at business travel management and focus on a more strategic deliver of its operations, according to the Steps (Sustainable Travel: Engaging the Public Sector) Review commissioned by the Sustainable Development Commission, the Office of Government Commerce and the Centre of Expertise for Sustainable Procurement.
Consultants JMP carried out the Steps Review, mapping the key issues for sustainable travel in the central government and executive agency estate in England.
Outlining the recommendations, Jonathan Green told NBTN members that though there was a lot of good work going on to manage government travel, particularly in procurement, “overall it is very fragmented and very unclear who owned the policy – if indeed there was one at all”.
“We need to know what exactly is happening,” said Jonathan. “We need to know the total cost of travel – not the cost of the trip but the total cost to the organisation. We don’t understand what is going on because we don’t have the information.
Jonathan argued that there were gaps in management information systems and that the government should ensure that its operational policy is aligned to national policy and an overall policy head appointed oversee sustainable operations and travel.
The JMP consultant said the public sector could borrow ideas and terminology from the private sector where large organisations were appointing “connectivity” managers and, at HSBC, an ”agility” chief.
But to build a successful policy, Jonathan said, new mobility managers needed to:
He said that the government should prioritise action and identify where intervention in the travel category could deliver the greatest sustainability gains, establish performance indicators for social and environmental sustainability, and, examine how it can influence the behaviour of staff travelling on business or the commute.
Government to tackle commuting emissions
The next set of sustainability targets within government estates will include a commitment to tackle emissions from commuting and a pilot scheme is planned to develop a framework for measurements and guidance, it was announced to NBTN delegates.
Outlining the priorities for the Sustainable Development Commission, Callum Clench also announced to NBTN members that there are concrete plans to identify a policy chief on government travel, introduce a new data collection and reporting regime and the compulsory introduction of workplace travel plans in departments.
Adding more detail to Jonathan Green’s presentation on the Steps Review and outlining the role of the Sustainable Development Commission, Policy Analyst Callum Clench said that new the revised SOGE (Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate) targets being introduced in 2011/12 would be “wider in content and coverage” looking at more in-depth evidence of travel within government.
Callum said that while the Steps Review aims to engage with and encourage government to develop a clear vision and high level of ambition for sustainable travel, the broader aim of this project “is to challenge current assumptions, encourage creativity and greater innovation, as well as to engender the necessary cultural and behavioural changes needed for government to rise to the challenge of leading by example.
He said that a policy lead on government travel needs to be established to provide a focus for guidance, reporting and stimulus of sustainable travel across all government departments and to develop a government-wide travel policy and delivery programme based on the recommendations in JMP’s report. “This need not be a new body or person,” Callum maintained, “but could be a function owned by whoever is responsible for operational policy and modernising government.”
He told delegates that, currently, government’s only travel-related Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate (SOGE) target is to reduce carbon emissions from road vehicles used for government administrative operations by 15 per cent by 2010/11, relative to 2005/06 levels.
“Data collation, management and reporting across government needs to be consistent, broader and more accurate in order that government may better manage and mitigate the impacts of travel related to the public sector. This means that government should expand its sphere of reporting from just administrative vehicles to consider all modes of business travel, employee commuting, visitor travel, and the smarter working practices and service delivery designs needed to drive improvements.”
Evidence from the DfT’s National Travel Survey shows that 28 per cent of business and commuting journeys by household cars are carried out by public sector workers. The SDC was issuing a call that all government departments and agencies should establish workplace travel plans to better understand, manage and minimise the impacts of commuter travel by civil servants.
Travel less, travel lighter, travel smarter urges IBM
Peter Bays from IBM gave delegates an insight into IBM’s current Smarter Planet campaign. The strategy highlights the need for the world’s infrastructure to become more intelligent. IBM believes that with its technological expertise and deep industry knowledge it can help companies and consumers be smarter and greener.
Building a smarter planet is IBM's take on how interconnected technologies are changing the way the world works. “Smarter Planet,” said Peter, “is IBM’s vision to bring a new level of smart to how the world works – how every person, business, organisation, government, natural system, and man-made system interacts. Each interaction represents a chance to do something better, more efficiently, more productively. But more than that, as the systems of the planet become smarter; we have a chance to open up meaningful new possibilities for progress.”
Peter, IBM’s European Mobility and UK and Ireland End User Development Manager, highlighted a range of organisations profiting from better use of technology: reducing costs and emissions with night time, energy-saving programmes, streamlining logistics and managing customer visits to make savings. “It is an opportunity to think and act in new ways – economically, socially and technically,” Peter said.
The IBM manager told delegates that the need for progress was clear. He said that the estimated annual cost of road congestion to the UK economy was in the billions. “Building a smarter planet is about thinking and acting in new ways to make our systems more efficient, productive and responsive. Smarter systems can make a material difference to the health of the global economy, the health of our planet, and the health and prosperity of global society.”
Delegates all received a copy of a recently produced IBM guide, The Carbon Journey, which aims to help organisations manage work-related travel emissions.
The good news, the guide says, is that reducing CO2 emissions from business travel brings cost savings, increased productivity and improved employee health and satisfaction. It urges organisations to be pragmatic and says that progress comes from focusing on what can be done rather than what cannot.
IBM suggests that road and air travel have the greatest contributions to CO2 emissions and a practical place to start is by measuring the distance travelled and the mode of transport used.
Although The Carbon Journey acknowledges that emissions from travel are complex and hard to estimate, their approach is to build a baseline from which patterns and improvements can be assessed. Three following phases should: develop travel solutions and targets, adopt new travel practices and optimise for ongoing travel reduction – with all phases geared to behavioural change management.
The publication tackles the tricky issue of “the commute”. Acknowledging that commuting is harder to pin down due to a lack of travel data, IBM says that businesses can determine what work is done where and by whom. The technology giant has developed a “proof-of-concept” tool to allow staff to enter their standard weekly travel details that are then consolidated at a site or organisational level to provide an estimate of emissions.
The Carbon Journey also faces up to the fact that often staff view travel as a perk of the job and consider alternatives as inconvenient or inefficient. Incentives should be used to drive commitment for change. Another key lesson is to make sure messages are not mixed over what is mandatory and what is voluntary.
The guide urges organisations to be innovative in the approach. While some organisations have introduced personal pledge schemes and “no-fly” months, others have business unit carbon league tables updated monthly.
“We won't have this opportunity forever,” Peter explained. “One thing is clear: The world will continue to become smaller, flatter and smarter. We are moving into the age of the globally integrated and intelligent economy, society and planet.
“The question is, what will we do with it?”
Follow this link to download a copy of The Carbon Journey.
Commission unveils ‘transport hierarchy’
Home working, speed limit enforcement, congestion charging, eco-driving, car-sharing and removing the barriers to public transport offer the greatest potential to make the way we travel more sustainable, Duncan Kay told delegates as he outlined the Sustainable Development Commission’s “transport hierarchy”.
Duncan charted a four-stage approach that encompasses SDC’s transport hierarchy. Delegates heard it aims to: first, reduce demand; second, increase modal shift to more sustainable modes; third, bring efficiency improvements and finally; fourth, increase capacity.
The transport policy analyst was unveiling the findings of the SDC ‘s Mobility 2020 project that explores how information and communication technology (ICT) can help make transport more sustainable.
“We found a massive range of transport projects involving ICT,” Duncan said, “With many projects aimed at improving driver experience, or safety, or reducing congestion, with indirect benefits for sustainability.”
He said the ICT can be an enabler, a facilitator or a sweetener by reducing the demand for travel, influencing mode choice, changing driver behaviour, changing vehicle behaviour and improving the network efficiency.
“One of the demand areas with the biggest potential gains is teleworking. With just eight per cent of the population home working, the SDC estimates that up to half could work from home or work hubs. Technology offers huge sustainability gains and in the last two months the DVLA for the first time issued more tax discs online the over the post-office counter.
“And the explosion of internet journey planners, real-time mobile applications and mode-specific advice, like walkit.com, is another key area where, we believe ITC can make travel more sustainable.”
Duncan said that eco-driving is also one of the most cost-effective interventions. He said that in the recent DfT Low Carbon Strategy, safe and fuel-efficient bus driver training was the most cost-effective of all the interventions with the benefits outweighing the costs by £82 per tonne of carbon saved.
“SatNav is also changing driver behaviour,” said the transport expert. “A study funded by Navteq suggested drivers using it benefited from a 12 per cent reduction in fuel consumption. While automated reminders for routine servicing, tyre pressure monitors and engine management system self-diagnostics can help ensure that vehicles run at optimum efficiency.”
He said that Ricardo have used internet-enabled mobile phone communications, GPS and advanced mapping data in their Sentience project to “see” beyond the immediate horizon of the driver to determine an optimal driving strategy, taking into account vehicle speed, acceleration, deceleration, speed limits, traffic conditions, road gradient, bends and even speed bumps. The strategy also optimises the recharging strategy for the hybrid system’s batteries. Track-based tests have demonstrated fuel savings of between 5 and 24 per cent.
Car sharing and car clubs are another route that the SDC see as moving people around more sustainably, according to Duncan. Liftshare.com has over 300,000 members and, as they will tell you, increasing average occupancy rates by just 1 per cent would equate to a saving of a billion car miles.
Duncan said that the SDC recognises that ITC is not a panacea and, with 30 per cent of UK households without internet access and 16 per cent without a mobile phone, there are challenges ahead.
Members urged to take up One in Five challenge
NBTN members were urged to follow the lead of a number of top international businesses that have pledged their support to World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) campaign to cut business flights by one fifth.
The high-profile campaign was launched in July with backing and commitment of Capgemini, Marks & Spencer, Premiere Global Services, Vodafone UK and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).
Jean Leston, Transport Policy Officer at the conservation charity, told delegates that with corporate air travel increasingly under review and the cost of flying expected to rise, the business case to reduce flying and the benefits to be gained were there for all to see.
Jean said that as well as saving money and increasing profits, there were also productivity gains with staff spending less time out of the office. She said that companies that reduce business flights improved their corporate responsibility profile through less carbon emissions and were still able to “keep connected” through technology such as telepresence.
“Video-conferencing can replace 15-30 per cent of all flights and has 2 per cent of the footprint, while high-speed rail produces one quarter of the emissions of flying,” Jean told delegates. “If every company in Europe replaced 20 per cent of business travel with conferencing, we’d save 22 million tonnes of CO2 per year, the equivalent of taking one third of UK cars off the road.
Jean explained that One in Five was a guided programme and award scheme to help business and government to cut one in five flights within five years. It is independently audited, sets annual flight reduction targets, is a lever to change business travel and demonstrates that companies can remain competitive while reducing their flying.
Delegates heard testimonials from some of the founding members outlining the reasons why their companies had taken up the flight reduction challenge.
Mike Barry, Head of Sustainable Business, Marks & Spencer said: “We believe that the One in Five campaign enables us to set targets within our business that will not only reduce our footprint, but will help us to save money.”
Nicola Woodhead, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Vodafone UK, said: “We are pleased to be a founder member of WWF’s One in Five Challenge. Vodafone UK is getting involved today because there is a real opportunity for people as well as employees of small and large companies to reduce their impact on the environment through mobile working.”
Campbell Gemmell, Chief Executive, Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) said: “What I like about the WWF challenge is its ambition. By signing up we want to show that not only are we aware of our environmental footprint, we are actively seeking to reduce it.”
NBTN delegates also heard that participating organisation in the One in Five challenge receive:
Making safety policy and travel policy double-barrelled
It’s not often that travel planners have to look down the barrel of a gun, but Mark Hide, from specialist safety and security company PlanetWise, would no doubt admit that it helps to reinforce the points being made in any slide presentation.
Plaudits went to one brave NBTN member who agreed to participate in the role-play exercise as a hapless and naïve traveller on foreign soil who has drugs planted on him and is tricked into signing a confession to trafficking large amounts of white powder while confronted by gun-toting Mike dressed in army fatigues. It certainly caught the attention of conference delegates.
Mike told delegates that, with duty of care and corporate manslaughter legislation looming large, including traveller safety clauses in a company travel policy can help keep employees and their equipment safer and increase their understanding of carbon management.
Mike said that many employees are, at best, complacent and naïve and that companies who fail to identify and manage the risk of employee business travel were leaving themselves open to litigation.
Planetwise’s case studies include:
Mike told the conference that the FBI estimates that one in 10 laptops are stolen each year with the average value of each blue-chip machine stolen being valued at $89,000. “The hardware is the easiest and cheapest element to replace,” he said.
PlanetWise runs a series on face-to-face and e-learning training courses aimed at helping organisations to fulfil their corporate responsibilities and keep their employees safe.
Mike told delegates that a safety policy could also play its part in helping to manage carbon emissions. “By including CO2 reduction as a module within the training and encouraging employees to learn more about the effects of their travel behaviour,” said Mike, “we can inform, educate and change behaviour.
From green to greenwash: the dos and don’ts of sustainability
From fluffy language to nagging, Lucy Shea gave delegates an insight into dos and don’ts of marketing a green travel campaign message across your organisation. Lucy, CEO of specialist sustainability communications agency, Futerra, admitted that bad marketing is generally easier to find than the good stuff.
“You don’t need to make your people understand capitalism to get your message over,” Lucy Shea cautioned NBTN members as she explained some of the basic marketing and communications techniques to delegates.
Lucy, whose firm Futerra has helped the likes of Microsoft, Unilever, Tesco BT and Defra communicate their sustainability message to staff and customers, outlined some of the pitfalls of marketing, starting with a warning not to overcomplicate the message.
Among the other no–go tactics were use guilt or to nag people and definitely not to bore them into change behaviour. “Sustainability is one of the most important topics out there – it affects all of us. It should be fascinating,” Lucy said. “But climate change versus the X-Factor? There’s no contest.”
“Attention is the most precious commodity. Boring your audience is the most offensive thing you can do. Humour can work and remember there is no rational man: it works through brand, information and recommendation.”
Turning to more positive approaches Lucy told the conference that it was important to be very clear and specific about the behaviours that help us tackle climate change. “You should take care to integrate other messages and behaviour change tactics, but don’t forget to ask for what you want,” she said. “If you’re trying to change habits you need to remind people exactly what they’re meant to be changing.
“We are more interested in keeping what we have got than gaining something conceptual,” said Lucy. “And remember to say thanks. “If you don’t give feedback, thank people and acknowledge the progress made, then how can people be sure they’re doing the right things? Feedback reduces anxiety, helps to reinforce behaviour and increases the belief that action makes a difference.”
The communications expert said that one of the most compelling messages she had come across recently that was of direct relevance to NBTN members was the issue of “lost time” when travelling. “If you are designing workplace travel packages, the idea of using the train rather than driving and being able to use wi-fi and access you emails seem to work very well.
Lucy touched on wider research (carried out by campaignstrategy) that segmented audiences in three categories: settlers, pioneers and prospectors. Matching the messages to the appropriate audience is crucial if it is to it lead to new behaviour.
In this scenario, settlers are very traditional, they don’t like change, are influenced by neighbours and believe yesterday is better. They are slow to adopt but stick like glue when they have. But pioneers are not influenced by what other people think. Their driving force is change, discovery and being cutting- edge. Meanwhile prospectors adopt things as a fashion statement or status symbol: success is their master. They do things to look good.
Lucy told the audience a case of one “prospector” couple that attached solar panels to the side of the roof that did receive direct sunlight. “When their mistake was pointed out,” said Lucy, “the women declared that the panels were put on the wrong side so that the neighbours could see them!”
Lucy ended with a run-down of the Greenwash Guide, downloadable from the Futerra website. She warned of the dangers of fluffly language, such as “eco-friendly”, suggestive green images, irrelevant claims, goobledyegook and outright lying.
“I have sympathy for travel planners as you have a really tricky job. Always set your objectives, do your research, see what other people have done and link your messages to what people care about.
For more information on Futerra’s work and activities – including regular masterclasses – visit http://www.futerra.co.uk. Click here to download a copy of the Greenwash Guide.
CTB hands over the baton
CEO buy in, SME take-up and the mainstreaming of travel planning were high on the list of hopes for the NBTN by Stephen Joseph as he handed over the reins from the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) to new hosts, Business in the Community (BITC).
“It could be the best thing that has ever happened to the network,” said Mr Joseph, whose transport charity was appointed to oversee the development of the NBTN since it was established by the DfT in 2007.
Mr Joseph said that, from its roots as a new discipline in public policy in the early 1990s, travel planning had come a long way and that the NBTN had “exceeded” initial targets since its inception.
He said that, with membership and strategic partners numbering over 400, the network had delivered substantial achievements in the field, publishing best practice guides, case studies, and, notably, producing research on the business case for travel plans. And its calendar of regional meetings and strategic partnerships was, he said, helping to promote travel planning further.
“The NBTN has engaged and persuaded ministers and policy officials of the strategic value of the network in helping meeting government objectives such as engaging with businesses and reducing CO2 emissions”, Mr Joseph said.
Looking to the future, CBT’s Executive Director said he hoped the network would ensure that tackling commuting and business travel are a mainstream part of business and government carbon reduction strategies.
“Getting CEO buy-in and widespread acceptance of the business case for travel plans and getting a consistent and joined up government approach to business and commuter travel across the range of different business and environment initiatives is so important,” Mr Joseph said.
He revealed that while industry colleagues had been comforting him about the loss of the contract, he was upbeat about the outcome: “NBTN transferring to BITC is the best thing that could happen to it,” Mr Joseph told delegates.
“BITC already has that link to business at CEO level and understands how business thinks. BITC reaches out to FTSE 350 and gets serious CEO buy-in to tackling commuting and business travel. It will help travel plans become a mainstream part of CSR strategies.”
He said that BITC could help with sectoral targeting, offering tailored business cases and networks for travel planning in different business sectors, in partnership with relevant trade associations, while the development of local and regional travel plan networks would help bring in SMEs to the fold.
BITC plans to take network mission to a new level
With public trust in business plummeting during the economic crises, tackling environmental impact – such as transport emissions – offers new opportunities and a chance to repair confidence, says the NBTN’S new strategic managers, Business in the Community (BITC).
Jim Hayward, Environment Director at BITC, said they are “thrilled to be picking up the baton” and that the business-led campaigners can help get the NBTN message out to a wider audience with greater impact.
“With public trust down by a huge 68 per cent in just one year, there has never been a more important time to mobilise business for good,” Jim told NBTN members.
Jim said that the recent financial crisis meant businesses needed to adopt “an old-fashioned decency” to rebuild trust. He said that businesses could not simply opt out of their corporate responsibilities during a recession and stressed that leading-edge companies know, in times like these, they should be living their values and recognising the positive impact that responsible business practice can have.
Jim cited a number of organisations that have adopted strategies to tackle their social and environmental impact and remained competitive – indeed taking the competitive edge. The Co-operative bank boosted deposits over the crisis as consumers sought a “flight to safety” with 20 per cent identifying the bank’s “ethics” as it main attraction, compare to one per cent of other banks.
Business in the Community is a business-led charity with 850 member companies and 320 business leaders championing campaigns. It is a global network representing one-in-five of the private sector workforce and promoting responsible business in four key impact areas; marketplace, workplace, environment and community.
The organisation runs a number of awards, excellence schemes and benchmarking programmes to promote its mission of encouraging corporate social responsibility. BITC also uses publications and position papers to encourage debate and inspire business to join its campaigns.
BITC is a Prince of Wales charity and the Prince’s “May Day Journey” is an initiative that aims to tackle climate change by encouraging businesses to sign up and play a powerful role in sharing best practice to reduce carbon emissions.
Jim said that 1,500 businesses had already signed up to take the May Day Journey to measure and manage their carbon footprint and that this was one example of “synergy” between BITC and the NBTN.
“One of the exciting things we can do is to see how we can integrate the work of the NBTN and join that up to the wider work of the Mayday Network thereby extending the reach of the message of reducing commuting and business travel,” Jim said.
“We have a great opportunity to work as a network in partnership with existing organisations in the NBTN, to spread the word and to take NBTN’s work to the next level of engagement.
“We intend to get more business involved, to inspire through best practice – it’s never been more important to do this.”
