Sustainable Travel

Introduction

Travel is an important contributor to emissions. Reducing emissions associated with travel can be challenging due to the needs of stakeholders (e.g. staff) to change their travel behaviours. You can overcome these challenges by implementing a change management plan, a communication strategy, and providing support to staff. This will give clarity regarding your organisation's goals, and the individual contributions needed from everyone to achieve them. You can refer to the following guidance to develop your sustainable travel strategy.

Business Travel

To minimise the environmental impact of business travel and promote sustainability within your organisation, you could consider implementing the following strategies:

• Develop a Sustainable Travel Strategy: Establish policies and guidelines that prioritise sustainability in travel decisions. The strategy can include:
  • establishing the criteria that determine when travel is justified
  • how to monitor progress
  • encourage employees to consider factors like the distance, purpose, and potential environmental impact of each trip.
• Promote the use of public transport: if travelling is justified, a Green Travel Strategy should prioritise the use of public transport. Leading by example, subsidising public transport costs, and partnering with travel agencies can further encourage employees to opt for eco-friendly travel options.
• Promote the use of Low Emission Vehicles: encourage staff to opt for hire cars instead of their own for a better control over what type of car is being used, favouring Low Emission Vehicles in contracts.
• Selecting and encouraging environmentally friendly hire cars: during the tendering process for hire car contracts, prioritise options that include lower emission vehicles. Highlight these choices as the first preference for staff, alongside public transportation, and offer guidance for driving and charging electric vehicles.
• Fleet optimisation: evaluate and optimise your existing fleet by reducing the number of vehicles or replacing leased vehicles with plug-in hybrids.
• Invest in electric charging infrastructure: explore opportunities to install electric charging points at your facilities while referring to the listed building and scheduled monument consents required. The National Trust for example, offers electric vehicle charging stations on several sites, and made efforts to promote public transport and cycling to heritage sites.
• Promote car sharing: consider introducing a passenger mileage rate to encourage car sharing among employees. This initiative not only reduces individual travel costs but also fosters a sense of community and teamwork within the organisation.

Staff Commuting

Commuting can be a significant contributor to your organisation’s carbon footprint, and while it is not the place of your organisation to implement direct changes to your staff’s personal habits, there are several strategies you can employ to provide better access to sustainable commuting practices:

• Communicate and display public transport options: Heritage organisations may also collaborate with local transportation authorities to provide shuttle services, especially in areas where public transport infrastructure is limited. This encourages staff and visitors to use sustainable modes of transportation. See for example the Museum of Natural History of Oxford’s access to the site guidance.
• Leadership Role Modelling: senior staff should actively model changed commuting behaviours. By adopting sustainable commuting practices themselves and communicating about them, leaders set a positive example for staff and others, reinforcing the importance of reducing carbon emissions through environmentally friendly travel options.
• Introduce LEV Salary Sacrifice Scheme: implementing a Low Emission Vehicle (LEV) salary sacrifice scheme, can provide staff with cost-effective access to lower emission private vehicles. Support this initiative by installing on-site charging points, making it convenient for employees to use electric or hybrid vehicles. This scheme not only benefits employees but also contributes to reducing the overall carbon footprint of commuting.

Further resources on sustainable travel

More themes to help your organisation towards Net Zero