Driving towards a greener future for corporate travel
Written byAt Uber, we believe transparency is at the heart of driving action on reducing corporate emissions and tackling climate change. That’s why Uber for Business is launching a new sustainability insights feature, which will provide corporate clients with a clear picture of their ground travel emissions.
Organizations can access metrics such as total carbon emissions and the percentage of corporate travel trips taken on low emission alternatives, including Uber Green, Comfort Electric and Uber Planet. These insights can help businesses better understand and report on their corporate travel carbon impact, and equip them with information to help reduce it.
“What we heard from our corporate clients is that they wanted to be able to track, report and act on their ground transportation impacts globally. They also wanted insight into the percentage of trips taken on greener modes, in order to help educate employees on how to reduce their carbon impact,” said Susan Anderson, Global Head of Uber for Business.
“As corporate travel recovers to pre-pandemic levels, we take our responsibility as one of the largest mobility platforms in the world seriously. By providing corporations with a simple, easy to use tool, we’re using our platform to help other businesses reach their own climate goals – because progress starts with transparency and accountability.”
According to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), more than 1,700 organizations globally have submitted concrete plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are verified by SBTi. Thousands more have also set ambitious targets to tackle their corporate emissions.
Despite this, a recent survey found only 28% say their company formally tracks their ground transportation-related sustainability initiatives and programs, while another found only around 19% leverage carbon footprint/sustainability data in the travel booking process.
Salesforce was among the first companies to pilot the feature, and see the results.
“Climate change is the biggest, most important and most complex adventure we have ever faced,” said Patrick Flynn, SVP, Global Head of Sustainability at Salesforce. “To meet the speed and scale that the climate emergency demands, we need to see customers and their suppliers connecting with one another in whole new ways to take bold climate action together. The emissions data and reporting tools that Uber makes available to its customers like Salesforce allows us to educate travelers on the impact of responsible travel choices, taking action into their own hands and advancing us on our net zero journey. We will rise to this challenge if we rise together.”
The sustainability insights now available through the Uber for Business dashboard include:
- Total low-emission trips: Provides visibility into the total number of trips taken using Uber Green, Comfort Electric, and Uber Planet, allowing Uber for Business customers to understand how often employees are opting for a green ride.
- Low-emission trip percentage: Displays the proportion of low-emission trips to total trips taken by the customer shows the bigger picture, allowing companies to quickly gauge how many trips align with their climate commitments.
- Total emissions (kilograms CO2): Monitors the total number of carbon emissions emitted by a company across all rides used in a given timeframe with Uber.
- Average grams CO2 emissions per mile: Allows companies to analyze carbon emission performance based on distance traveled.
- Graph of total emissions by average grams CO2 per mile: Visually observe carbon emissions over time to evaluate how they are progressing toward near and long-term targets.
The world is at a critical juncture, and we all have a role to play. Uber is aiming high, and we want to equip our corporate clients to aim high as well.
For more information on Uber for Business’ new sustainability insights, see here. For more on Uber’s commitment to transparency and accountability, visit here.