Building a Sustainable Future for Business Travel: From Words to Action
The time is now to empower organisations of all sizes and in all geographies to accelerate the integration of travel practices that materially reduce emissions, on a joint journey with the travel value chain to reach Net Zero by 2050.
On 4 November 2024, GBTA will be hosting its Annual Sustainability Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark. This year, the focus will be on bold actions, radical collaboration, preparing for regulations, the role of technology, and the importance of harmonisation across the industry.
This one-day, high-level event will bring together industry leaders, practitioners, experts and policy leaders to outline the latest trends in sustainable business travel and offer concrete decarbonisation solutions. The Summit will facilitate connections and dialogue, offering a platform for open conversations about the challenges and opportunities in advancing climate action within the business travel sector.
Who should attend?
- Travel buyers and managers working to integrate sustainability into their program
- Sustainability experts looking to decarbonize their value chain emissions
- Suppliers providing sustainable solutions for corporate travel programs
- Policymakers laying the groundwork for a sustainable travel ecosystem
- Civil society advocating for the next generation of sustainability solutions
What's on the agenda?
Shifting from theory to action
Case studies, best practices, and lessons learned
Preparing for regulations
Understanding new reporting requirements
Radical collaboration
Opportunities for partnerships in driving impactful actions
Harmonisation efforts
Latest global industry standards
The role of technology
Innovations and AI applied to climate action
Building climate resilience
How to prepare for the impact of climate change
Registration
Registration Rates For Summit Increase on 19 September
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Registration for the Sustainability Summit is included in the Conference registration.
Already registered for GBTA +VDR Conference 2024 in Partnership with the Nordic Business Travel Associations | Copenhagen? You can still register for additional add-ons like the Go-Running Morning Tour of Hamburg – Click here
All registration is subject to 25% VAT
This registration is for GBTA Sustainability Summit ONLY, if you want to register to attend GBTA +VDR Conference 2024 in Partnership with the Nordic Business Travel Associations | Copenhagen
Questions about your registration?
Email enquiries@gbta.org
Terms and Conditions apply. Please review the GBTA Conference 2022 – Brussels in Partnership with VDR Terms and Conditions.
Venue
Event Location
Bella Center Copenhagen
Center Boulevard 5
DK-2300
Copenhagen S
BCC – Entrance D
Programme
GBTA, the Global Business Travel Association, will host its 3rd Sustainability Summit in Copenhagen on Monday 4 November –focusing on decarbonizing Business travel and effectively calculating, tracking and reducing emissions.
| Time | Title | Website description | |||||
| 11:00 – 12:15 | FIRESIDE CHAT: From Policy to Practice: The road to sustainable transportation | Drawing on his extensive experience in the European Parliament, MEP Jakop Dalunde will discuss the latest innovations, successful policy implementations, and the future landscape of sustainable transportation. This session will provide valuable insights into how the travel and transportation industry can transition towards more sustainable practices, highlighting the importance of collaboration, technological advancements, and supportive infrastructure. | |||||
| Getting Ahead: How to prepare for CSRD and upcoming ESG rules | As the European Union continues to advance its regulatory framework around sustainability, businesses must stay ahead of the curve to ensure compliance and capitalize on new opportunities. This session will provide a comprehensive overview of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the latest developments in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) regulations within the EU. | ||||||
| Breakout Sessions – Choose to attend one of the below sessions | |||||||
| 12:30 – 13:15 | Sustainable Procurement in Hospitality: Evaluating Hotel Sustainability for Business Travel | Navigating Carbon Complexity: Unpacking Aviation Emissions at Point-of-Sale | Unlocking the potential of rail and multimodal travel | ||||
| Discover how hotels are transforming their sustainability practices beyond mere lodging to encompass comprehensive services like meetings, events, and dining. Join us to navigate the complexities of evaluating hotel sustainability—from carbon footprints to community impacts—and learn practical strategies for integrating sustainability goals into your procurement processes. | Aviation presents one of the biggest challenges, and biggest opportunities, to mitigate carbon emissions of business travel programs. But what’s behind the emissions metrics presented at the point-of-sale? What do travel managers who are integrating these metrics into their corporate booking systems need to know, and how can they better educate their travelers? In this session, panelists will explore the complexities of calculating carbon emissions, including non-CO2 effects, in aviation. You’ll learn about methodologies like the TIM model and CO2 Connect that shape airline sustainability metrics at the point-of-sale, and gain insights from industry experts on navigating these challenges to effectively assess carbon impacts from airline partners. | Business travelers have long welcomed the use of innovative technologies to increase the efficiency of bookings and travel itself. Digital tools can play a key role in facilitating seamless and multimodal travel experiences at the point of sale. However, challenges exist in technology and infrastructure, amongst others. This panel will explore the opportunities of a robust rail and multimodal booking system for Europe and discuss the issues to be solved to realize this. | |||||
| 13:15 – 14:15 | Expo and networking lunch | ||||||
| Breakout Sessions – Choose to attend one of the below sessions | |||||||
| 14:15 – 15:00 | Breakout 4 | How to reduce business travel emissions without reducing business outcomes? | The new EU landscape for climate policies | Grow or Thrive? The Case for Donut Economics in Sustainable Travel | |||
| COMING SOON | Designed for corporate travel managers and business leaders, this session tackles the crucial question: “How can businesses reduce emissions while accelerating outcomes?” Gain actionable insights on balancing emissions reduction with business needs and leave equipped to develop an action plan for emissions reduction initiatives, future-proof your organization, measure impact, communicate progress, and empower key people to drive organizational change. | Elections have concluded. New members of the EU Parliament have been elected and new Commissioners have been selected. This breakout will explore these changes and the effects they will have on current and future environmental policies that are agreed upon in Brussels. Attendees will have a better understanding of how to prepare for remaining and new climate files and what GBTA will be advocating for in the next 5 years. | In recent years, we’ve been inundated with sustainability buzzwords and quick fixes to address travel’s role in global carbon emissions. But what if, to make a real impact, we need to challenge the status quo? In this forward-thinking lecture, you’ll discover how one development model – Kate Raworth’s Donut Economics – might be the path forward. Join this session to explore how the industry can adopt Donut Economics to combat climate change and transform business travel’s sustainability approach to achieve real progress. | ||||
| 15:00 – 15:30 | Expo and Coffee break | ||||||
| 15:30 – 16:45 | Accelerate for Action: Interactive Think Tank session | Collaborate with GBTA Foundation and your peers in this interactive, thought-provoking session on how to accelerate change towards a more sustainable future for business travel. Attendees will walk away with the momentum to make actionable changes in their programs and companies, while also helping to shape GBTA Foundation’s strategy in the years to come. | |||||
| 16:45 – 17:20 | Keynote: Building a Resilient Tomorrow: Turning risks into opportunities for business travel | Join Monica Araya, Senior Director of the European Climate Foundation, as she lays out the roadmap towards electrification in Europe and beyond. She’ll discuss the role all cities, governments, and business travelers can play to secure a zero-emissions future for transport. | |||||
| 17:20 – 17:30 | Closing remarks | ||||||
Interested in learning more about sponsoring the GBTA Sustainability Summit 2024?
2023 Sponsors
Platinum
Climate Action Partner
Partner
Featured
Tabletop
Venue Sponsor
Exhibitors Guide 2022
| Meet the experts | What they do |
| From decarbonizing travel to championing diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity in our workforce, we take our role as a member of the global community seriously. Learn about our commitment to our people, our customers, the environment, and more in our latest annual ESG report. |
| At BCD Travel we ethically manage our environmental, social and financial responsibilities to ensure our ongoing business success—without limiting options for future generations. As part of that responsibility, we are committed to supporting our clients with products and services to help them build their own sustainable travel program initiatives. |
BWH Hotel Group | BWH Hotel Group is a leading, global hospitality network comprised of three hotel companies, including WorldHotels® Collection, Best Western® Hotels & Resorts and SureStay Hotel Group®. This creates a global network of approximately 4,700 hotels across every chain scale segment, in over 100 countries and territories worldwide. |
| ClimatePartner is a leading solution provider for corporate climate action: We combine individual consulting with a cloud-based software that is unique on the market. We help our customers calculate and reduce carbon emissions and offset residual emissions. This renders products and companies carbon neutral. |
| Developed by and for MICE professionals, Climeet is an all-in-one platform that enables you to understand, calculate, manage and offset the carbon footprint of your events. It was created by Green Evénements, major sustainable consulting firm in the MICE industry, and South Pole, global climate solutions provider. |
| At CWT we focus on business-to-business travel for employees. We make it our mission to bring the best customer experience to you and your employees. With our long history in travel we understand travelers and are continuously innovating our processes and tools to improve business travelers’ experiences. |
| Eurostar has been connecting people, places and businesses since we started operating over 27 years ago, offering fast and seamless connections between London and mainland Europe. With one flight the equivalent of up to 13 Eurostar journeys* when it comes to carbon emissions, we are proud to be the greener way to go. |
| HRS is reinventing the way businesses stay, work and pay in today’s dynamic global marketplace. HRS’ advanced platform technology is extending its reach beyond hospitality to meetings, office space management, payment efficiency and crisis recovery. HRS is also recognized for its award-winning Green Stay Initiative, technology that helps corporate hotel programs achieve their NetZero target. |
| SAP Concur solutions delivers on a relentless pursuit of what’s possible into everyday travel, expense, and invoice processes – continuously providing new tools to automate and integrate them, so your people get more done and you get more control. With SAP Concur solutions, you’ll move beyond yesterday’s tedious tasks to keep your business running at its best every day. |
| SkyNRG is a global leader in SAF since 2009. Our mission is to build up sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) capacity for aviation to meet its 2050 net zero commitment and in doing so, significantly reduce the industry’s impact on our environment. |
| Plan your next in-person meeting in minutes.TROOP is a platform that benefits everyone that is involved in arranging meetings by removing all the manual work that currently takes place to pull together pricing and availability and then supercharges it with sustainability & safety data, and much more. |
| Established in 1933 with a fleet of five aircraft, Star Alliance member Turkish Airlines has a fleet of 389 (passenger and cargo) aircraft flying to 340 worldwide destinations as 287 international and 53 domestics in 129 countries. |
