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Corporations Stay the Course on Sustainable Business Travel but Struggle to Progress in High Impact Areas, According to Global Benchmark

ByDebbie Iannaci

Results of the 2025 GBTA Sustainability Acceleration Challenge and inaugural Acceleration Awards show evidence of progress but also the critical need to accelerate efforts in key areas

los Fundación GBTA, the cause-led arm of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), today released the second-year findings from its Desafío de aceleración de la sostenibilidad, a global benchmark assessing the state of corporate action to decarbonize business travel programs.

Input from 285 companies across the globe – representing an annual business travel spend of $22 billion USD – reveals that companies are still committed to tracking and managing carbon emissions from their employee travel programs, with measurable gains in maturity and more organizations joining the effort. Progress, however, remains limited in certain high impact areas, underscoring the need for faster, collective action to invest in low-carbon travel solutions.

“Year two of our benchmark shows real engagement and growing commitment. But despite progress, greater urgency is needed,” said Delphine Millot, Senior Vice President, Advocacy and Sustainability, GBTA, and Managing Director, GBTA Foundation. “To future-proof business travel, companies must accelerate adoption of sustainable procurement practices and carbon management strategies to send a real signal to the market.”

The 2025 results from the global benchmark developed in collaboration with Acento were released today at the GBTA + VDR Conferencia de Europa in Hamburg and can be descargado aquí.

Key findings from the 2025 GBTA Sustainability Acceleration Challenge include:

  • Participation continues to grow: 285 companies participated in the 2025 assessment, marking a 20% increase compared to 2024. Across the two years, participants represent approximately $31 billion in annual business travel spend and include one-quarter of BTN’s Top 100 corporate travel programs.
  • Incremental maturity gains: The global average score is now 1.4 compared to 1.3 in 2024 (out of a maturity scale from 0 showing “no activity” to 5 being “leading practice”), reflecting limited overall improvement.
  • Regional shifts: Global and APAC travel programs improved slightly, while regional and local programs in Europe and North America dipped marginally, likely due to regulatory changes and economic uncertainty.
  • Program size correlation: Smaller (<$5M) programs have made notable progress this year, while the largest (>$500M) programs have regressed overall, perhaps demonstrating that while companies under intense public scrutiny may be slowing their sustainability efforts, smaller companies may be using sustainability leadership as a way to differentiate themselves.
  • Leading industry sectors: The Financial, Banking and Insurance sector continues to lead (maturity score of 1.9 out of 5), followed by the Professional Services and Consulting sector (score of 1.7). These sectors traditionally have a large share of their emissions coming from their business travel programs.

Where companies are making progress:

  • Cost-positive sustainable practices are accelerating. Sustainable Travel Policies (2.2 score in 2025 versus 1.8 score in 2024) and Carbon Budgets (0.7 score in 2025 versus 0.5 score in 2024) show strong year-over-year improvement.
  • Reporting and targets setting are becoming standard. Reporting (2.7 score in 2025 versus 2.1 score in 2024) and Targets Setting (1.7 score in 2025 versus 1.4 score in 2024) are increasingly built into travel programs – although the largest companies show some regression.

Where acceleration is urgently needed:

  • Shaping travel decisions. Tools that influence booking choices – Carbon Fees (score of 0.4 in 2025) and OBT (online booking tool) Features (score of 2.4 in 2025), have stalled. Embedding these mechanisms is key to enforcing sustainable travel policies.
  • Sending a unified demand signal: While supplier sustainability assessments are increasing, advanced levers such as the Normas de adquisiciones sostenibles de GBTA and sustainability clauses in Contracting (score of 1.2 in 2025), show no movement – likely hindered by limited guidance and technology enablement.
  • Investing in emissions abatement: The use of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) to decrease emissions from business travel is growing (15% of corporates purchasing SAF certificates in 2025, up from 12% in 2024), but adoption remains low. Corporates can leverage GBTA SAF Corporate Connect for best practices on SAF implementation.

“The GBTA Sustainability Acceleration Challenge provides a roadmap for the future,” said Dr. Jesko-Philipp Neuenburg, Global Travel & Aviation Sustainability Lead, Accenture. “With more companies participating, we’re seeing where the industry is moving forward, and where further collaboration can close the gap between ambition and action.”

Acceleration Awards and Leaderboard Results

The GBTA Foundation also announced the winners of the inaugural Acceleration Awards and Leaderboards, designed to highlight top-performing and most-improved companies. These honor corporate travel programs that are setting the pace for decarbonization in business travel and acting as innovators, advocates and changemakers across the industry.

Award recipients were selected based on Acceleration Challenge Results scores and reviewed by members of the GBTA Sustainability Leadership and Corporate Advisory Board.

Acceleration Awards Categories include: Global Leaders (top travel programs globally); Emerging Leaders (top small travel programs); Regional Leaders; Industry Leaders; and Transformational Impact (most improved travel programs).

Award Winners:

  • Acceleration Award – Europe Regional Leader: BDO – UK (other regional winners to be announced at GBTA regional conferences in 2026)
  • Acceleration Award – Industry Leaders: Kearney (Consulting) – Global; BDO LLP (Finance) – UK; Parexel (Pharmaceuticals) – Global; University of California (Public Sector) – USA; IKEA (Retail) – Global; and Nokia (Technology) – Global

Leaderboards:

  • Global Leaderboard: AstraZeneca – APAC, AVEVA – Global, BDO LLP – UK, Ingka Group (IKEA) – Global, Kearney – Global, NetApp – Global, Nokia – Global, Nordea – Global, Parexel – Global, Tata Communications – Global.
  • Emerging Leaderboard: Accelya – Global, Austral Education Group – Global, Flottweg SE – Global, Sopra Steria – Germany, Transcom – Global
  • Transformational Impact Leaderboard: Arcadis – NORAM, Kuo – Mexico, NetApp – Global, Nokia – Global, Sandoz – Italy

The full 2025 Acceleration Leaderboards and award winners can be found on the Sitio web de la Fundación GBTA. 

“BDO LLP are participating in the Acceleration Challenge to showcase our leadership in sustainable travel. By innovating and advocating for impactful solutions, we aim to inspire industry-wide change and demonstrate how strategic engagement can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of business travel. I hope that this inspires others across industries to explore their own paths toward making a positive impact,” said Verity Phillips-Davies, BDO LLP’s Travel Manager.

Millot added: “These companies exemplify the leadership, innovation, and collaboration needed to transform business travel for a net-zero future. Their commitment to measurable progress shows what’s possible when sustainability becomes an integral part of corporate travel strategy.”

Turning Insights into Action: GBTA Transition Pathway

Introduced earlier this year, the GBTA Sustainable Business Travel Transition Pathway developed with Accenture, continues to serve as a key guide for organizations, outlining practical steps companies can take to move from awareness to implementation.

As part of its ongoing effort to empower companies with actionable insights and learning tools, the GBTA Foundation also provides a range of resources:

  • Highlighting mejores prácticas and continuing to track progress through the Acceleration Challenge
  • Guidance on Combustible de aviación sostenible (SAF) adoption through the recently launched SAF Corporate Connect
  • Tools to embed sustainable supplier engagement including upcoming training on the Estándares de adquisiciones sostenibles and an aviation sustainability scorecard

Acerca de la Iniciativa de Sostenibilidad de la Fundación GBTA  
los Iniciativa de sostenibilidad de la Fundación GBTA El objetivo es impulsar la colaboración intersectorial entre los usuarios y proveedores de servicios de viajes corporativos para implementar soluciones que ayuden a gestionar y reducir las emisiones de carbono de los viajes. Nuestro trabajo incluye la creación de capacidades, la armonización y las iniciativas de promoción para empoderar a los profesionales de los viajes de negocios a fin de que promuevan programas de viajes de negocios conscientes del clima.

GBTA’s Sustainability initiative was made possible by the corporate donations and support from the Foundation’s sustainability partners. For more information or to help support the GBTA Foundation and our Sustainability Initiative, reach out to sustainability@gbta.org.

Acerca de GBTA 
La Asociación Mundial de Viajes de Negocios (GBTA) is the world’s premier business travel and meetings trade organization serving stakeholders across six continents. GBTA and its 9,000+ members represent and advocate for the $1.57 trillion global business travel and meetings industry. GBTA and the GBTA Foundation deliver world-class education, events, research, advocacy, and media to a growing global network of more than 28,000 travel professionals and 125,000 active contacts. For more information, visit GBTA.orgyFundación GBTA.org.