American Express Global Business Travel unveils latest initiatives to lead travel to low-carbon futu

Debuts Green Compass to help corporates chart their journey to reduced greenhouse gas emissions - while keeping business travel moving

Commits to setting science-based targets and net-zero emissions by 2050.

American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) today announced initiatives to help clients achieve their carbon reduction targets and propel GBT on its own journey to net-zero by 2050.

Green Compass - a new service developed by GBT's consulting arm, Global Business Consulting - puts corporates on the pathway to reduced business travel emissions while still enabling travel. Green Compass features an intuitive dashboard that provides travel managers with granular insight into the factors that drive emissions from business travel and helps identify the best actions for decarbonizing their travel program.

The actions will depend on a company's travel patterns and business needs and can include shifting to sustainable hotels, flying on lower emission aircraft, substituting rail for air, procuring sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), or carbon offsetting. GBC consultants then work with the travel manager to develop a strategy to achieve the targeted emissions reductions.

Julie Avenel, GBT Global Business Consulting's vice president, said: "The world needs to travel and trade again and we want to help businesses do so in the smartest and greenest way possible. Green Compass gives travel managers and sustainability stakeholders the data insight and expertise they need to guide their organization's decarbonization journey, highlighting steps they can take to drive down emissions while continuing to travel to meetings. Most CO2 products only indicate emissions produced by travel. In contrast, Green Compass enables companies to set targets, track progress and take action."

Green Compass is part of GBT's marketplace for green travel where clients and suppliers can find solutions that help accelerate their transition to a low-carbon future. The methodology, data integrity and calculations behind Green Compass's Emissions Optimization Algorithm (EOA) are verified by Carbon Footprint.

GBT will debut Green Compass at GBTA Convention 2021 Orlando.

Driving decarbonization at GBT

GBT has formally committed to setting science-based targets as an interim step on its journey to net-zero emissions globally by 2050. GBT will follow the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) methodology to establish emissions reduction goals for its global operations and supply chain over the next two years.

For science-based and net-zero targets, GBT is working to limit global warming to avoid the most catastrophic threats of climate change as set out by the Paris Agreement. GBT joins SBTi together with more than 2,000 companies representing more than 20% of global market capitalization (in excess of USD 20 trillion)1.

GBT has been neutral for its own travel since 2019, one of the first global travel management companies to offset 100% of its own travel emissions. To help achieve its science-based and net-zero targets, GBT will incorporate sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) into its strategy for reducing its own corporate travel emissions. GBT is already working to scale SAF throughout the aviation value chain through its collaboration with Shell Aviation, combining the buying power of airlines and GBT's corporate business travel customers.

Si-Yeon Kim, GBT's Chief Risk & Compliance Officer and Executive Chair of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) said: "At the same time as we're enabling clients and travelers, GBT is accelerating our own decarbonization journey. Formally committing to the SBTi is an important milestone, underlining our determination to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 or earlier."

More information on GBT's sustainability targets and progress can be found in its annual ESG report which is available here.

See GBT CEO Paul Abbott at the Sustainability: Mobilizing Our Industry for Change panel at GBTA Convention 2021 Orlando on Thursday, November 18 at 12.30PM.

See Nora Lovell Marchant, GBT VP of Sustainability, at the Building a Business Travel Program with Sustainable Aviation Fuel education session on Thursday, November 18 at 10.00AM.

1source: Science Based Targets https://sciencebasedtargets.org/sbti-progress-report-2020