TRANSPORT FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Transport is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, with commuter and business travel making up nearly 40 per cent of miles driven by car.

Travel consumes resources, even though much of the cost is not immediately evident. Hidden costs to your business include staff time spent travelling and providing parking spaces.

To manage the travel generated by your business, you could create a staff travel plan. This can reduce your environmental impact, provide financial benefits and improve productivity, saving your business and staff, money and time. A staff travel plan aims to reduce the need for travel and support more sustainable modes such as walking, cycling, public transport and car sharing.

You can encourage car-sharing by promoting the West Sussex Car Share resource. This forms part of the national liftshare network, connecting schemes and individuals from around the UK under one united scheme.

To promote cycling, you could set up a Cycle to Work scheme. This is a tax exemption scheme under which employees can typically save up to 50% off the retail price of a new bike.

One way of reducing costs is to try and reduce the need to travel in the first place. As part of your business travel plan it can be worth considering if any staff can work remotely or if there are opportunities for video conferencing.

To find out what other businesses are doing and to share best practice, you could join ACT TravelWise. This is a network for all businesses and organisations working to promote sustainable travel. It provides learning opportunities, partnership working, marketing support and networking events.

Depending on the size of your organisation, your fleet can also add considerably to the cost of your business. A clean, environmentally friendly fleet can reduce transport costs and vehicle emissions and enhance your corporate social reputation.

The Energy Saving Trust runs a transport advice programme for businesses. This aims to reduce the costs and improve the environmental performance of car and van fleets. Depending on the size of your fleet, you can either get free advice over the telephone and a monthly fleet update or a Green Fleet Review.

There will be travel requirements for businesses that cannot be reduced. Some businesses choose to offset carbon emissions that are otherwise difficult to reduce. There are several organisations that sell carbon offsets.

 

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