ITM Launches Environmental Accreditation For Buyers
ICARUS awards for Suppliers to be announced in October 07
The Institute of Travel & Meetings (ITM) today unveiled the next phase of its Project ICARUS initiative with the news that travel buyers can now apply for accreditation for their carbon reduction initiatives.
The association also announced that it is inviting entries from suppliers for the industry's first-ever Environmental Awards, which will be announced by webcast on Monday 15th October.
Project ICARUS was established by ITM last year to promote carbon reduction in travel management programmes throughout the business travel industry. The project launched with the creation of a working party of buyers, academics and consultants to create resources for all aspects of responsible corporate travel, and launched its Environmental Impact Reduction Toolkit at the association's Edinburgh conference in March.
The buyer accreditation scheme has four levels, and at the basic level simply requires a public statement of support for ITM's environmental goals and commitment to achieving Project ICARUS accreditation. Buyers seeking bronze level accreditation must demonstrate policy implementation, targets and measurement of absolute CO2 reductions on air travel over a minimum two-year period. At this stage a buyer organisation can also receive accreditation for making their travel more CO2 efficient even though they may be increasing travel overall, but these efficiency measurement do not apply to higher accreditation levels as the aim of ICARUS is to reduce CO2 in absolute terms.
The two higher levels require absolute CO2 reduction across travel programmes by at least 2.11 % per annum, starting in 2007, and a reduction of 60% by 2050 against 2007 levels. The highest level - Gold - requires buyers to demonstrate achieved CO2 reduction of double the bronze level targets across five sectors including air, rail, hotel accommodation, ground transportation and business mileage.
Larger corporates and government departments have already declared their support for the initiative, according to ITM's Chief Executive Paul Tilstone. "We now have a set of environmental accreditation standards in place to recognise buyers who undertake carbon reduction programmes. Now we plan to expand the list of organisations making the commitment and to demonstrate how seriously British business is taking carbon reduction in travel."
The supplier awards will recognise supplier innovation and leadership in environmental impact reduction. Entry to will be open to all business travel suppliers and will be judged by a specialist Project ICARUS panel. "The awards will not carry any sponsorship and the winners will be the first and only suppliers invited to join the ICARUS team for one year" explained Tilstone.
ITM will be providing guidance to travel buyers on how to create and implement CO2 reduction programmes at the one-day National Forums on 6th September at Donnington Valley in Newbury, and on 7th November at the Ramada Jarvis in Bolton.
The association has also created a Carbon Reduction Ready Reckoner to help companies calculate what percentage they need to reduce by each year to reach 60% reductions by 2050. The accreditation details and the Ready Reckoner can all be found at www.itm.org.uk/icarus
