European firms more focused on cutting travel emissions – BTN Europe survey

European companies appear to be further ahead on the journey to making their business travel more sustainable than organisations based in North America, according to a BTN Europe survey of travel managers in both regions.

The survey of nearly 300 travel buyers found that 62 per cent worked for companies which had established overall carbon reduction targets, with this figure rising to 70 per cent of European managers and only reaching 60 per cent for their North American counterparts. Check out the full results here.

One of the factors encouraging European companies to reduce their business travel emissions is the need to comply with government regulations, most notably the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), with many firms required to report their 2024 emissions from business travel during 2025.

This has helped to create a big disparity between European and North American companies, with 65 per cent of respondents in Europe saying that compliance with regulations was driving their attempts to reduce business travel emissions. This compares to just 41 per cent of US-based buyers.

Other important factors in decarbonising corporate travel include senior management emphasising its importance and organisations actively pursuing a strategy of reducing emissions as a corporate goal.

The survey also examines how buyers have been tasked with delivering a reduction in business travel emissions. This includes modifying traveller booking behaviour to increase sustainability, as well as achieving shifts in the modes of transport used by travellers – particularly moving them from flights to rail journeys, where the survey also found a significant disparity between European and US buyers.

The findings form part of BTN Europe’s new sustainability special report, called Navigating towards net zero, which has been published this week and features a comprehensive analysis of all the factors affecting corporate travel’s attempts to become more sustainable and the challenges that lie ahead.