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ITM plans environmental accreditation standards
An Environmental Impact Reduction Toolkit has been launched by the Institute of Travel Management.
It is part of the association’s CSR initiative ‘Project ICARUS’, launched at the end of 2006, for which the ITM has received £100,000 government funding and is working alongside Cranfield University’s Department of Air Transport during the first phase.
The toolkit contains corporate case studies highlighting successes in the use of video conferencing, ground transportation, and wider environmental activities; a guide to RFP and travel policy environmental best practice; an FAQ document dispelling some of the myths surrounding carbon; an analysis of the different measurement tools, and more detailed information about video conferencing.
The ITM has also produced a DVD containing interviews with travel buyers, suppliers and intermediaries discussing their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies, and a special edition of the association’s Newsline magazine focusing exclusively on CSR and environmental issues.
A special ICARUS zone within the ITM’s web site www.itm.org.uk has also been created.
Speaking at the association’s 2007 conference in Edinburgh, ITM executive director Paul Tilstone said: “There can be no bigger issue than CSR in our industry right now.
“The theme of our conference is Responsible Travel Management, and we’ve already encouraged conference delegates to take responsibility for offsetting their own travel to and from the conference.
“However it doesn’t stop there. By the end of June we will have a set of environmental accreditation standards in place to recognise buyers who undertake carbon reduction programmes, and later this year we will be launching an awards process that recognises suppliers’ innovation and leadership in environmental impact reduction.”
Entry to the awards will be open to all business travel suppliers, reviewed and short-listed by the Project ICARUS team and then voted on by ITM buyer members.
“The awards will not carry any sponsorship and the winners will be the first and only supplier invited to join the ICARUS team for one year,” said Tilstone.
*See linked ITM story
by Phil Davies
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