Business travel is responsible for more than 30% of the total carbon footprint of many organizations. They’re facing increased pressure from regulators, investors, and their own customers to demonstrate tangible reduction measures. As a result, these businesses are urgently seeking tools to help them calculate and monitor their corporate travel emissions.
To meet this need, Zalaris developed and integrated two new sustainability features into its Travel & Expense Solution. The new CO2 tracker enables the precise calculation of emissions generated by business trips using uploaded travel receipts, while the My Carbon Footprint app allows employees to monitor their emissions over time for both personal and corporate travel.
With these new tools, key emissions metrics needed for disclosure and compliance can be easily exported for a more streamlined reporting process. Both solutions are designed to bring carbon insights to the forefront of business operations and involve the entire organization in the journey to net-zero.
Challenge: Companies need to accurately calculate and reduce travel emissions
Zalaris’ goals were two-fold. Firstly, they wanted to empower confident reporting on travel-related scope 3 emissions, ensuring corporate compliance. Secondly, they wanted to incentivize behavioral change and encourage more sustainable travel decisions among the users of their solutions.
To do this, the Zalaris team needed to generate accurate emission insights for all modes of business travel, including employee flights, hotel stays, taxis, and personal vehicles. These calculations also had to take into account variables including flight class, vehicle types, and geographic locations, among others.
To influence decision-making, Zalaris needed to enable users not just to calculate emissions based on individual receipts, but to maintain visibility of their total carbon footprint over time. As such, they envisioned carbon insights that surfaced across multiple touchpoints within their Travel & Expense solutions.
Zalaris evaluated various alternatives, including the development of emission calculations in-house, but found it to be demanding in terms of research, implementation, and maintenance and decided to partner with a specialized solution provider like Climatiq.
Solution: Climatiq streamlines precise CO2 emission calculations for all modes of travel
Climatiq’s Travel Emissions API enabled Zalaris’ product team to embed actionable carbon insights for business travel activities throughout their Travel & Expense Solution.
The API removed the burden of complex carbon measurements with support for all travel calculation methods, including distance-, fuel-, and spend-based. It automatically computes distance for air, train, and car travel, and allows for flexible address resolution using free text, postal/ZIP codes, IATA airport codes, and more. Additionally, Climatiq’s solution accounts for cabin class, vehicle size, and engine type to improve the accuracy of emissions tracking and reporting.
The credibility of Climatiq’s calculations were also key factors in Zalaris’ decision to partner. Overseen by a Scientific Advisory Board, Climatiq’s calculations adhere to established global standards including the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol and ISO 14067.
Results: Actionable travel emission insights embedded into two new solutions
The Zalaris team launched their CO2 tracker and My Carbon Footprint app following a short development cycle. Getting up and running with Climatiq was quick and easy, as the team received continuous guidance throughout the implementation. In the initial testing phase, the two apps were launched internally across the whole company to all 900 employees across 15 countries.
By integrating accurate emission metrics into corporate applications, Zalaris is confident that the heightened awareness of the carbon impact from business travel will encourage more sustainable transport choices.
