GBTA Tackles Sustainable Business Travel
The topic of creating a greener future for business travel took centre stage for the first time at the GBTA Canada Conference in Toronto this week as close to 600 Canadian leaders, professionals and other stakeholders gathered from a cross-section of the travel industry including airlines, hotel companies and corporate travel agency leaders.
Sustainability has moved to the front of the agenda for economies, companies and the world at large. It is also a priority for the business travel industry, as revealed in new research from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) where almost 9 in 10 industry respondents say sustainability is already a priority for their company.
At its Toronto event, there were expert discussions and research including the newly released GBTA study, “The State of Sustainability in the Global Business Travel Sector,” presented by Delphine Millot, Senior Vice President, Sustainability, for GBTA.
The 21-page benchmarking study provides in-depth data and commentary from both global business travel buyers and travel suppliers as well as external policy makers, think tanks and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) to reveal top priorities and opportunities for the business travel industry.
GBTA Canada also announced today a new partnership with the Canadian Council for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (C-SAF).
Nancy Tudorache, Regional Vice President, Canada for GBTA, said that: “GBTA is focused on sustainability across its global regions and including here in Canada. One of our goals is to help raise awareness across our industry and help guide actionable and achievable outcomes. Our partnership with C-SAF will help accelerate the journey toward a more sustainable future for the business travel industry in Canada.”
GBTA and C-SAF will work together along with their partners, the industry at large, and government to raise awareness, show support, and take action toward increasing sustainable initiatives in the travel industry to help Canada accomplish its goal of being net zero by 2050.
Geoff Tauvette, Executive Director, C-SAF, said that: “Air travel is important for Canada, but we need to find ways of flying more sustainably and SAF is a solution that can be deployed now for aviation to accelerate its transition to net-zero. Given very little SAF is being made in Canada today, C-SAF will bring together industry and government to put in place the winning conditions to build a SAF market in Canada. Through our partnership with GBTA Canada, together we’ll be able to do even more to help sustainable travel overall in Canada and including the business travel sector.”
C-SAF is a federal not-for-profit company launched in February 2022. It currently has about 100 members representing the key stakeholders from a the SAF value chain. This includes 60 airlines flying in and out of Canada (domestic, international, cargo, charters) and 40 SAF stakeholders including suppliers, airports, OEMs, SAF innovators and academia.
Go to www.gbta.org for more.
