Facebook, Google and the Walt Disney Company are among 25 multinationals with no “credible plans” to cut their corporate aviation emissions, according to a new report.
The research, carried out by the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E), scrutinised the efforts and commitments made by multinationals to reduce business travel by air.
Poor performers are judged on two criteria: higher CO2 emissions due to employer aviation travel and no credible targets to reduce these emissions.
The analyst found 25 of the world’s biggest flyers are yet to set targets to reduce corporate flights, despite being responsible for over a third of the travel emissions recorded by T&E. Among these top flyers without any reduction targets are consulting giants KPMG and Accenture.
Rival consultancies EY, PwC and Deloitte are much more ambitious regarding their aviation targets, with clearly defined plans to reduce what is often regarded as ‘the low hanging fruit’ of a company’s climate footprint.
Other top flyers in the ranking with no credible plans to cut down travel emissions include Siemens, Volkswagen, Johnson & Johnson, Google, Meta and the Walt Disney Company.
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Of the 328 companies evaluated in the rankings, only 57 companies have set targets to reduce business travel emissions, including aviation.
Denise Auclair, corporate travel manager at Transport & Environment said: “Top flyers have an outsized responsibility to cut down their flying. They must urgently set targets or risk losing out to competitors. There are no excuses for not taking action. Peers in their sector have set ambitious targets, so what is stopping laggards like KPMG and Accenture from doing the same?”
Michael Solomon Williams, charity Campaign for Better Transport, said: “Big business has a duty to reduce its impact on the planet.
“As this ranking reveals, some companies are leading the way when it comes to reducing their travel emissions whilst others are getting left behind.
“Rather than paying lip service to reducing their impact on the environment, companies need to set robust targets and deliver reductions for the sake of people and the planet.”
In a report published in December last year, T&E saiid JP Morgan Chase was one of 113 companies failing to significantly reduce emissions.
In September last year, the Department for Transport (DfT) introduced a revenue certainty scheme as part of the UK’s sustainable aviation fuel programme, supporting the industry to decarbonise.
