Travelport unveils Carbon Tracker

A post-booking reporting tool designed to measure and report carbon emissions as part of a sustainable travel programme has been unveiled by Travelport.

The tracker has been developed in conjunction with Agresso and The Carbon Consultancy to provide “robust intelligence” to inform and enable sustainable travel decision-making. 

It sets out to provide corporations with a more accurate measurement of emissions and is described as a “vital step” towards a better understanding of how to more effectively manage carbon footprints, according to Travelport. 

The tool is not directly linked to specific “offsetting” programmes and is designed for use with multiple GDSs.

The Travelport Carbon Tracker, unveiled at the World Travel and Tourism Council annual travel and tourism summit in Dubai, claims to take advantage of the latest developments in emissions calculation. 

It combines industry-standard compliance reporting with an advanced calculator that uses operational data and a range of key variables to deliver more sophisticated emissions analysis, according to the Galileo/Worldspan parent company.

The tracker utilises a graphical interface that enables users to calculate and compare accurate CO2 analyses for each itinerary and obtain information on carbon emissions across multiple travel types (air, rail and car). 

It has built-in report-generation capabilities and can merge information from back-office systems. 

Travelport president and CEO Jeff Clarke said: “At the core of all ‘carbon mindful’ initiatives is the measurement of carbon emissions, yet carbon measurement itself is a relatively new and emerging science. 

“Research is still needed to improve on the accuracy of data gathering, calculation and reporting solutions. 

“As an active member of the travel industry, we are cognizant of the critical environmental issues we all face and are committed to finding the best possible solutions. 

“Our aims in launching this tool are to give the industry access to the latest and most improved ways of measuring emissions for business intelligence; to encourage debate and collaboration in terms of emissions benchmarking; and to enable corporations to make informed decisions for sustainable travel as part of their overall travel policies”. 

*See video updates from the WTTC Summit on TravelMole TV – go to http://www.travelmole.tv/watch_vdo_unwto.php