CSR-A COP Tips – Low Carbon Travel

Travel Light

The way we travel – from driving to work or the shops to jetting around the globe on business comes close behind the heating of our homes and offices for the volume of carbon emissions produced.

Since the first Covid-19 lockdown, many people across the UK reduced their transport emissions by switching to walking or cycling over short distances. However, as restrictions are easing and people start to travel more freely, it’s likely these carbon emissions will begin to creep up. is it time to think again?

Recent research shows that cycling uses 0.06 megajoules per passenger kilometre travelled, with walking at 0.16 megajoules, electric & diesel rail at 1.65, cars at 2.10, a Boeing 727 at 2.24 and surprisingly taxis at 2.95 megajoules per passenger kilometre travelled.

(Data: Sustainable Transport and Public Policy)

1. Organisations should encourage where possible schemes that reduce the negative impact that travel has on our health and environment.
2. Hybrid working where possible with fewer travel days to the workplace
3. Walking has many benefits to both your health and the environment
4. Encourage cycling, take advantage of initiatives such at the ‘Bike2Work’ scheme
5. Car sharing can help combat congestion and cut CO2 emissions, as well as saving you money
6. Consider switching to an electric car. Electric vehicles have zero tailpipe emissions, which helps to improve air quality
7. Support the use public transport
8. Fly less, Sounds obvious, but until alternative energy-powered planes arrive (around a decade away), we actually need to take responsibility for lowering our own aviation carbon impact
9. Where you can take a train when traveling for business: Virgin trains reports London Kings Cross to Glasgow Central trains use 42.5kg of CO2 emitted. That’s 25% of the same journey by petrol car, 174.8kg, and 17% of that by plane, 244.2kg
10. Review your organisations travel policy for commuting and business travel to make reductions on your negative carbon impacts.

Little steps add up to big impacts, join the race to net zero.

What is CSR Accreditation?
Achieving CSR Accreditation is a visible testimony of excellence in Social Responsibility. The accreditation helps you integrate social, environmental, ethical, human rights and consumer concerns into your business operations and strategy.

A CSR Accreditation can be used to:

• Deliver the information required for ESG (Environmental Social Governance) reporting
• Identify the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) which you may wish to support.
• Write a Social Value policy
• Reduce negative impact on climate change – Race to Zero
• Produce a Social Impact Report.
• Enrich, enable and engage employees, shareholders and stakeholders.

CSR-A run the only CSR Accreditation scheme in the UK and now operate globally
The CSR Accreditation is an effective way to benchmark what you are already doing with regard to social responsibility. It is a process in which you collate, measure and report on your organisation’s socially responsible activities. An accreditation will also provide you with a roadmap for planning future activity.

This is a fully holistic and inclusive approach that allows for all organisations – private, public and third sector and is for all sizes from sole traders to large corporations. It employs a white paper approach that promotes an organisation’s individuality.

The application process provides a simple and straightforward template where you record activity against the Social Responsibility ‘Four Pillars’ of environment, workplace, community and philanthropy. Each Social Responsibility Pillar is designed to help you impact report on areas such as energy performance, recycling, staff engagement, health and well-being, community engagement and support for local and national charities.

The establishment of a CSR Accreditation is a crucial component of a company’s competitiveness and something that should be led by the business itself. For companies, the overall aim is to achieve a positive impact on society as a whole while maximising the creation of shared value for the owners of the business, its employees, shareholders and stakeholders.