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Is your company's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spotlight focused squarely on the corporate travel program? If it isn't already, it will be soon.

A glance through the newspapers or a quick Google will reveal that green travel is on in the hearts and minds or at least on the lips of travel managers, purchasing directors and business travelers themselves. With rising international concern about global warming, much of the concern of corporations and business travellers is focused squarely on carbon emissions.

But companies must aim to ensure that they do not focus too heavily on one component of a CSR program (e.g., environmental sustainability) at the expense of other key areas (e.g., stakeholder/fiscal interests, duty of care). A sound, sustainable and accountable travel program is a natural component of any company's commitment to CSR, and offers rich potential to advance its CSR goals.

BCD Travel calls this balanced, integrated approach Responsible Travel Management. We help corporate travel programs address both:

Sustainability - To evaluate and reduce the environmental impact of travel activities

Accountability - To improve traveler wellbeing and security and promote ethical business standards throughout a company's travel supply chain and stakeholder network

BCD Travel has just released a white paper on Responsible Corporate Travel Management. The full white paper can be downloaded here.

When it comes to sustainability, as Kermit the Frog sang so memorably, It's not easy being green. Companies need accurate information to make balanced decisions about their carbon footprint. BCD Travel has recently rolled carbon emission reporting into its information management solution, DecisionSourceTM: Data Manager. Now available to all of BCD Travel's customers throughout the world, the CO2 emission tracker calculates emissions produced by air travel and provides reports on this information at company, departmental and individual traveler levels.

Armed with this knowledge, many companies are choosing to offset their carbon emissions. BCD Travel recently announced that it has selected atmosfair, a widely respected not-for-profit organization, as its global offsetting partner (see related article in this edition).

But Mary Ellen George, general manager of Advito, cautions against assuming that sustainability automatically equates to carbon offsetting. Rather, she says, After diagnosing their current environmental impact, companies should evaluate which path(s) to take, according to their business model and business-critical needs: their options include eradicating emissions where possible, reducing their carbon footprint and offsetting remaining emissions. Advito's CSR-related consulting portfolio is designed to help companies make just such an evaluation.

Accountability standards should also be reflected in every company's CSR program. Responsible Corporate Travel Management helps companies identify a central ethical code of conduct from which they successfully serve all components of their CSR program.

CSR policies should ideally contain initiatives to improve traveler wellbeing and security, as well as those to promote ethical business standards throughout the company's supply chain and stakeholder network.

BCD Travel's innovative risk management technology, DecisionSource: Security Manager, enables clients to monitor their travelers security anywhere in the world. It provides crisis management reporting, pre-trip and on-trip compliance reporting, risk assessment and destination intelligence. In the event of a crisis, companies can immediately execute a plan to get travelers out of a high-risk area quickly.

DecisionSource: Security Manager also provides timely, factual destination information linked to individual traveler itineraries. It monitors risk across the globe, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, generating e-mail alerts to keep travelers informed and aware.

In an age in which companies prioritization of travel-related CSR initiatives is continually evolving, a recent survey of over 200 travel managers and business travelers, conducted by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives in conjunction with KDS, points to the importance of true Responsible Travel Management, which addresses both sustainability and accountability.

In the survey, employee security was ranked as companies top concern, with 81 percent of respondents citing this as a high priority; cost reduction followed as a close second, ranked as a high priority by 77 percent of the sample. Supporting environmental sustainability trailed some way behind, with only 20 percent believing that companies consider this a High priority.

Key to the successful implementation of a responsible travel program is the recognition that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. BCD Travel and Advito are committed to helping companies explore their options, providing consistent and accurate data for good decision-making, and implementing solutions that match their needs.

BCD Travel is your all inclusive corporate travel agency offering competitive ongoing corporate travel management solutions to companies across Australia. We do more than simply organise your corporate travel, we also coordinate conferences and incentives and assist staff with personal holiday planning to any destination worldwide.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - The Role Of Corporate Social Responsibility In Your Company'S Initiatives