Sustainable travel – a realistic goal in the IT industry?

Sustainable travel blog

Global, Oct 4, 2023

As Architects of Change, we strive to contribute to a cleaner, healthier planet and to reduce our environmental impact. Logicalis has committed to the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) Corporate Net Zero Standard to become a net-zero organization by 2050.  

One of the ways we are looking to reduce carbon is by practicing sustainable travel.  

But as a global technology services provider with operations in 30 territories, how feasible is it to live the Logicalis sustainable values when doing a global role? 

We asked Catriona Walkerden, Global VP, Marketing to take us through how the new sustainable travel policy at Logicalis influenced her recent business travel decisions. 

Consider if you need to travel at all 

The first factor is thinking about whether travel is truly necessary. In the corporate world, particularly in tech, there are reasons to travel every week. While face to face meetings are great, at Logicalis we recognise the need to balance this with our responsible business agenda. 

So when I was recently invited to an event with one of our key partners, Cisco, I thought twice about it. It was a technology focused event around managed services, an area of interest for my role given the Logicalis focus to building our managed services with Cisco.  

However, our CTO from global and Portugal were already attending (and therefore I could get the insights from them) so I decided I didn’t need to travel unless I had a specific role for the event. It turned out I was invited to speak on a panel on Logicalis’s go-to market journey with Cisco. An exciting opportunity to share our story which made the carbon business case a bit more justifiable.  

So the next step was deciding, how to get there in the most carbon efficient way. 

Choosing the most carbon efficient means of transport 

Our sustainable travel policy mandates that all travel with origins and destinations in Europe should be by rail where feasible as a first option. If road travel is necessary choosing a hybrid or electric car and if no other option, flying requires manager approval and due to seating density, economy is the best option. 

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Travel options supplied by Route Zero

Our policy is supported with an awesome tool called Route Zero, I simply input my start and end point and it tells me the most carbon efficient journey and the duration of the options to determine if the carbon efficient path is feasible.  

Luckily for me, my business trip was to Amsterdam and the calculation on Route zero speaks for itself, the train journey at 5kg of carbon for the whole trip was 94% less CO2 . 

The duration of the trip was just over 5 hours travel time from Maidenhead, 4 hours direct train to Amsterdam from London, passing through Lille in France, Brussels in Belgium, Rotterdam in Netherlands and finally Amsterdam! 

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Catriona Walkerden departing from Maidenhead

The cost of the Eurostar was on par with the flight. In addition, when I purchased my ticket to St Pancras international at Maidenhead station the attendant proactively informed me there is a special return ticket to London for Eurostar users which was almost half price to the usual return journey. 

 

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Catriona and Toby Alcock, CTO, Logicalis taking the opportunity to travel together

The Route Zero app was even able to calculate the carbon of the trip from Amsterdam central to the Cisco office in Bullewijk station which encouraged us to avoid the traffic heading out of the city and feel like locals as we joined the Dutch morning commuters. 

We were not brave (or fit!) enough to take the top suggestion of Bike, despite the tempting zero carbon emission! 

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City travel options supplied by Route Zero

Conclusion 

The carbon, convenience and cash savings, really stack up in favour of catching the train. The wi-fi was patchy in parts so the idea of continuous connectivity on the train did not live up to expectations but four hours of uninterrupted time to get on with some work certainly beat the plane in terms of productivity. 

In addition, knowing I’m leading by example, making decisions that support our sustainability strategy is the most compelling part. 

My advice for others in the industry, take the time to reflect on whether travel is really necessary. 

Look at your options, even if public transport isn’t feasible for the whole trip, like our Amsterdam metro adventure, see what your options are when on the ground. 

Finally make the trip worthwhile when you get there and enjoy the facetime with colleagues and partners! 

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Catriona and colleagues at the Cisco offices

 

 

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