Mandating Sustainability: New White Paper Details Impact Recent EU Accounting Directive to Have on Travel Buyers

In 2014, the European Council adopted Directive 2014/95/EU establishing mandatory environmental, social and governance reporting requirements for companies of significant public relevance with more than 500 employees. The EU member states are currently transposing the Directive into national law and mandatory reporting will be enforced beginning in 2017. This new Directive makes reporting of non-financial data mandatory for over 6,000 EU companies.

The GBTA Foundation’s Project ICARUS partnered with atmosfair to create a white paper detailing its implications for business travel carbon emissions reporting. The white paper, EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive: Implications for Business Travel Reporting, analyses current reporting practices and gives an indication of how prepared the business travel industry is for this new regulation. It also offers solutions on how travel buyers can prepare for the new reporting requirements.

With nearly 6,000 companies impacted, Project ICARUS wanted to create a resource to help travel buyers navigate the implications this new directive presents. The directive should not be seen as a burden on companies, however, but rather an opportunity to increase European companies’ long-term competitiveness and Europe’s long-term sustainable growth practices.

From the white paper you can get a clear indication of whether or not this directive applies to your company and what information needs to be reported. It also highlights the opportunity presented as this directive is a strong signal form the EU to accelerate the pace to achieve Europe 2020 strategy towards inclusive, smart and sustainable growth. The aim is to make Europe a global leader in establishing a new economic model that combines long-term profitability with social justice and the protection of our environment.

Looking beyond compliance, many companies are seeing the potential relevance and importance of reporting on the “six capitals,” namely financial capital, manufacturing capital, human capital, social and relationship capital, intellectual capital and natural capital.

For travel buyers, case studies in France and the UK where mandatory CSR reporting already exists show that changes in business practices will result from this reporting because what gets measured, gets managed. Some examples of sustainability-driven changes to travel practices include the introduction of green travel policies and embracing electric vehicles and car sharing. Travel suppliers and TMCs have a great opportunity to provide green products and services that support travel buyers in their efforts to reduce their company’s carbon footrprint from travel while maintaining the quality of business relationships and the safety of their travellers.

Download the report and find more resources from Project ICARUS here.