Travel Smart Campaign

💼🚆Traveling for work is a significant part of many employees' duties. How can companies reconcile travel, employees’ well-being and sustainability goals? A new trend is gathering momentum: encouraging train travel as an alternative to flying. ✨#NEW - Eight new companies just joined our ranks of 36 global businesses leading sustainable mobility practices. How? They have ramped up their travel policy so as to facilitate and accustom employees to travel by train, rather than by plane - the most polluting way of travelling. ✈️Aviation is the most climate-intensive form of transport and #BusinessTravel accounts for 25% of global air travel. Reducing corporate flying emissions can be done quickly with an ambitious rail travel policy. 📌The most common rail policies among companies include: 1. Allocating larger budgets to promote rail travel, 2. allowing the booking of first-class tickets to ensure employees can travel comfortably and be productive, and 3. prioritising train travel by default for journeys under a specified number of hours or kilometers to make rail itineraries the norm. 📑 Including rail as a key element in travel policies is essential to effectively reduce emissions from corporate travelling. Companies should do their part to avoid emissions now by #FlyingLess, meeting online and #Shifting2Rail ✅ Find out which companies have implemented a leading travel policy ➡️https://shorturl.at/Zrd2U

✨Big day today for Women’s Euro 2025! ⚽With the group stage draw, teams will find out whom they need to beat to advance to the knockout rounds in Switzerland. ⏪A perfect moment to look back at the highlights and new features of this year's Men's #EURO2024. 🚅Encouraged by UEFA EURO 2024, the German and Swiss teams took the lead in sustainable travel by choosing train travel during the group stages. Several other teams followed in their path ➡️ shorturl.at/S6cRa. ✅What does all this mean for travel to sporting events? Reducing flying is entirely feasible. Both fans and football stars took meaningful steps to cut emissions by traveling to matches in Germany by train.  🤔Coming up, could the #WEURO2025 become the next major milestone for sustainable travel in sports? ⬇️Our colleague Erin Vera tells you more below. T&E T&E Deutschland VCS Verkehrs-Club der Schweiz

[Original publication in French below] 🚅A new direct train service between Paris and Berlin will launch next Monday. In fact, a night service has been operating between these two cities since the end of 2023. 📈This launch comes at a perfect time, as train travel continues to grow in France. ✨Our #NEW survey, conducted by Corporate Mobilities and OpinionWay, reveals that French business travellers clearly prefer travelling by train rather than by other means of transport: - 81% consider the train as a more productive way to travel, compared to other modes of transport - Half report that their companies are implementing the government’s recommendation to use the train by default for journeys up to 4 hours - A majority believe their companies should adopt rail travel as the mode of transport for journeys lasting up to 8 hours ➡️Discover more insights from the survey: shorturl.at/KmZqw [FR]🚅Un nouveau TGV entre Paris et Berlin sera lancé lundi prochain. En effet, un service de nuit fonctionne déjà entre ces deux villes depuis fin 2023. 📈Ce lancement arrive à point nommé, alors que les voyages en train continuent d'accroître en France. ✨Notre #Nouvelle enquête, menée par Corporate Mobilities et OpinionWay, révèle que les voyageurs d'affaires français préfèrent nettement le train à d’autres moyens de transport: - 81% considèrent le train comme un moyen de déplacement plus productif, par rapport aux autres modes de transport - La moitié d'entre eux indiquent que leur entreprise mette en place la recommandation du gouvernement d'utiliser le train par défaut pour les trajets d'une durée inférieure à 4 heures - Une majorité pense que leur entreprise devrait adopter le train comme mode de transport pour les trajets d'une durée maximale de 8 heures ➡️Pour en savoir plus sur l'enquête : shorturl.at/vg6u6 T&E France (Transport & Environment) Pour un réveil écologique

✅Some European governments recognise that reducing emissions from air travel is crucial to meeting the Paris Agreement goals and achieving the EU 2030 climate target. 🚆To address this, they have started introducing policies that promote, strengthen and incentivise rail travel resulting in a surge in rail travel among business travelers. 📑Common measures include: - Favoring rail travel over air for trips below a specific distance or duration - Encouraging public sector employees to opt for rail travel - Providing night trains to other European capitals ➡️Discover which countries are leading the way in adopting the #shift2rail initiatives. Pour un réveil écologique Ecologistas en Acción eco-union ECODES (Fundación Ecología y Desarrollo) Natuur & Milieu Campaign for Better Transport Transform Scotland Aviation Environment Federation VCÖ - Mobilität mit Zukunft

💼Want to take more business trips by train, and wondering who’s providing the best services ? ✨Explore the first-of-its-kind ranking of European rail operators, evaluated across eight key criteria, to see the ingredients for a successful experience. 🚅With growing awareness of the climate impact from business travel, companies are actively encouraging their employees to embrace the #shift2rail. ✅To make this shift a reality, coordinated measures from the European Commission, Member States and rail operators are essential to unlock the full potential of rail for business travel. ➡️Learn more: https://shorturl.at/Zrd2U VCÖ - Mobilität mit Zukunft Pour un réveil écologique

✨You can now read about how Simon-Kucher has become one of our best practices in our #NEW case study!   🚅The Global consultancy has earned its stripes with its sustainable travel policy, where the train is the protagonist. Simon-Kucher is one of the 7 frontrunner companies in our Rail First for Business.   📑Among the range of policies promoting and supporting business rail travel as an alternative to flying are:  - #RailFirst - Use train instead of plane for trips below a certain amount of hours or kilometres - Allocate to your employees a budget to encourage travelling by rail - Offer the possibility of booking first class tickets when feasible  - Strong employee engagement is crucial to create a culture where sustainable travel is prioritized ✅Besides, Simon-Kucher is on the right track in its journey, rising to the B category in our Ranking after setting a clear travel reduction target. ➡️We bring this interesting experience by the hand of Anne Rupp, Simon-Kucher’s Global Head of ESG. Read the interview: https://shorturl.at/T2Htl

🚆Across Europe, companies increasingly want their employees to travel by train instead of by plane. But, what do businesses need to facilitate this shift from #Air2Rail for their corporate travelers? 🚨These are two critical measures the EU needs to take: - The EU Single Ticketing Regulation, - More investment in rail infrastructure 🎟️The Single Ticketing Regulation, set to launch in 2025, aims to simplify cross-border and multi-operator rail bookings. It will enable business travelers to purchase a single ticket for multi-leg journeys across different operators. 🛠️However, for this transition to reach its full potential, the EU and national governments must significantly boost investment in rail infrastructure. Business travelers demand reliable service, but in some regions, the current system falls short. ✅Business travelers and companies are ready for this change. To fully realize it, quick action is required by the EU and national governments. ➡️Read what our Rail Manager, Victor Thévenet and Head of Travel Smart, Denise Auclair say about it: https://shorturl.at/1DCsR

🏢Companies are increasingly identifying specific routes where rail should be the default choice to reduce #BusinessTravel flying emissions. 🚆Among our Rail First for Business contenders consulting EY, pharma company AstraZeneca and Salesforce are prime examples of shifting from air to rail travel. 💊For example, AstraZeneca has seen rail’s share on eligible routes—those considered a viable alternative to flying—rise dramatically, from 31% in 2019 to 65% in 2023, resulting in substantial CO2 savings. On top European routes like Barcelona to Madrid and Rome to Milan, over 90% of trips are now made by train. 👔EY is also prioritising lower-emission travel options through its booking tool, which steers employees towards rail and other sustainable modes of transport. By autumn 2023, rail accounted for 22% of EY’s global travel bookings, more than doubling from 10% in 2019. 💻And Salesforce encourages employees to take the train for journeys of up to 300 miles, provided it adds no more than two hours to the total travel time. The company has also implemented a policy specifying 35 global routes where employees are required to travel by train. 💼Notably, 90% of trips between Boston and New York are now made by train. Across Salesforce's top ten routes globally, rail travel accounts for 52% of trips, a significant increase from 42% the previous year. Learn more from other best practices: shorturl.at/yjk1C 

🚨#COP29 is over and many critical climate-intensive issues were at stake, including the aviation sector - one of the most difficult to reduce. For the first time, contrails, #NonCO2 emissions, were finally on the agenda. 💨What are contrails? They are the white streaks planes leave behind in the sky which contribute significantly to global warming, with an impact even higher to aviation's CO2 emissions. However, only 3% of flights are responsible for 80% of contrail-induced warming. ✈️#DidYouKnow that by adjusting the flight paths of this very few flights, it is possible to cut global contrail warming by more than half by 2040? 💰In fact, contrail avoidance stands out as an affordable climate solution. According to a new study by T&E rerouting a flight from Paris to New York to avoid creating contrails would cost less than €4 per ticket, according to conservative estimates. 🧪In addition, a global coalition of over 50 climate and aviation scientists has come together to urge policymakers to address contrail-related warming, emphasizing the need for solutions that complement, rather than compromise, decarbonization efforts. ➡️The IPCC first acknowledged the climate impact of contrails 25 years ago. Yet, despite this early recognition, minimal progress has been made in reducing them over the decades. This must change. Read more: https://shorturl.at/6LsdD

Companies want to shift #BusinessTravel to rail and are asking the German government to make rail travel possible🚆 According to TravelPerk and OnePoll, 84% of all domestic business trips booked through its platform were made by train this year, compared to only 54% before the pandemic. In contrast, only 16% of travellers opted for air travel 🗺️ A prime example is the Munich-Berlin route. In 2019, it was considered a typical business flight path, with less than a quarter of TravelPerk customers choosing the train. This year, that number has risen to 72%. 💻 A key advantage of travelling by train is the ability to work onboard, with a great number of global respondents reporting they feel more productive on trains than on other modes of transport. With this growing demand for train travel, it is important for the German government to prioritise improving rail infrastructure and facilitating cross-border travel to support and accelerate #shift2rail and reduce #BusinessTravel emissions. Read the letter 👉 https://shorturl.at/YDyHx