BCD Travel partners with Squake on sustainability platform

BCD Travel has teamed up with carbon specialist Squake to create a new integrated sustainability platform for clients.

The Netherlands-based TMC said its partnership with Squake, alongside BCD’s own consultancy arm Advito, will allow customers to “streamline” carbon-related activities so they can set targets and sustainability policies, which can then be embedded within both online and offline booking channels.

The new sustainability product is currently being piloted with German engineering firm Siemens and will be made available to BCD’s clients during the first quarter of 2025.

April Bridgeman, senior vice president at BCD Travel and managing director at Advito, explained: “Until now, our clients have had to spend significant time and energy identifying, selecting and deploying a range of sustainability providers that aren’t easy to integrate together or into their programmes.

“Along with Squake and Advito, we decided to help by bringing what was once a fragmented set of features and suppliers together to simplify the process.

The platform will include “active nudging and steering tools” within booking channels to help drive traveller behaviour. This includes displaying the emissions of air, train, hotel and ground transport services, as well as detailing the carbon cost of each trip.

BCD added that it will also feature options for those clients who have set a carbon tax or require trips to be offset by investment in carbon reduction projects or through buying alternative aviation fuels when booking flights.

Another feature will be carbon budgeting, forecasting and reporting tools to help customers to set and manage their CO2 targets, which BCD said would be “key to comply” with the regulatory reporting now required by the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). 

“Our goal is to embed carbon emission-related action into the core processes and reduce the execution complexity of sustainability policies,” added Philipp von Lamezan, CEO of Squake.