Sustainable business travel: How you can reduce your travel footprint

Business travel is back. Teams are visiting clients, attending conferences and meeting colleagues face-to-face again. And whilst those trips are often very valuable, they also come with an environmental cost.

As sustainability becomes a bigger priority for businesses, many companies are starting to rethink how they approach travel. The goal is to travel smarter, reduce unnecessary emissions and make more conscious choices along the way.

The good news: small changes can make a big difference.

We’ll cover why sustainable travel is important for businesses and some practical ways you can make your business travel a little more planet-friendly.

Key takeaways:

• Sustainable business travel starts with smarter decisions. Not every meeting requires a trip – virtual meetings can reduce costs, time and emissions.
• The way you travel matters. Choosing trains, public transport or shared travel can significantly lower the environmental impact of business trips.
• Small habits add up. Simple actions like packing lighter, reducing waste and choosing eco-conscious accommodation can make trips more sustainable.
• Visibility helps businesses improve. Tools like Pleo make it easier to track travel spending, manage company cards and understand how your team travels.

Why sustainable travel matters for businesses

Sustainability has quickly moved up the priority list for many companies. What used to be a ‘nice-to-have’ is now becoming part of how businesses operate, report and plan for the future.

Travel is often a big part of that conversation.

For international teams especially, flights, hotels and transport can make up a sizeable share of a company’s overall carbon footprint. And as more organisations start tracking their emissions as part of wider sustainability or ESG efforts, travel is one of the first places they look.

But it’s not just about reporting.

Employees and customers are increasingly paying attention to how businesses approach sustainability. Companies that make an effort to reduce their environmental impact can benefit from stronger reputation, more engaged teams and clearer alignment with their long-term goals.

Of course, business travel isn’t going anywhere. Meeting people face-to-face still matters.

The challenge for many companies is figuring out how to balance necessary travel with smarter, more sustainable choices. That’s what we’ll take a look at.

What does sustainable business travel look like?

Sustainable travel doesn’t mean eliminating travel altogether. Instead, it’s about cutting down on unnecessary trips, choosing lower-impact transport options and making more environmentally conscious decisions during travel.

Across multiple trips, all the little changes will add up and help reduce emissions over time. Here are some practical ways your business can make a difference:

1. Don’t travel unless it’s essential

We’ve all had that moment: sitting in a meeting thinking, ‘This could have been an email.’ Or these days, a video call.

Remote collaboration tools have made it easier than ever to connect with colleagues and clients without leaving the office (or the sofa). That doesn’t mean business travel is going away – but it does mean companies can be more intentional about when it happens.

Before booking a trip, it’s worth asking a simple question: does travelling in person add real value here?

If the answer is yes – great. If not, you might save time, money and emissions by staying put.

2. When you do travel, choose lower-impact options

Sometimes travelling is the right call. When it is, the way you travel can make a big difference.

For shorter distances, trains often produce significantly fewer emissions than flights. In many cases, they’re also less stressful – no security queues, fewer delays and a bit more legroom.

Public transport can also be a great alternative to taxis for getting around cities. And if a car is necessary, sharing rides with colleagues can help cut down emissions.

None of this has to be perfect. The goal is simply to make the greener option when it’s practical.

3. Choose eco-conscious accommodation

Sustainable travel isn’t just about the journey – it’s also about where you stay.

Many hotels now run sustainability programmes aimed at reducing water use, energy consumption and waste. Things like towel reuse initiatives or energy-efficient buildings might seem small, but they add up.

Even simple choices during your stay – like skipping daily room cleaning or reusing towels – can help reduce the environmental impact of a trip.

4. Pack lighter and waste less

Business trips don’t usually require half your wardrobe. Travelling lighter helps reduce aircraft weight (which affects fuel consumption) and generally leads to less waste along the way.

A few small habits can make trips more sustainable:

• Bringing a reusable water bottle
• Avoiding single-use plastics
• Using digital documents instead of printing
• Packing only what you’ll realistically use

Individually these things might seem tiny. Across hundreds of trips, they’re not.

5. Track your travel to understand its impact

One of the biggest challenges for companies trying to travel more sustainably is simply understanding how their teams are travelling in the first place.

Without visibility into travel spending, it’s difficult to see patterns – like how often teams fly, which routes are most common or where emissions might be reduced.

That’s why many businesses are starting to track travel more closely as part of their broader sustainability goals.

How Pleo can help manage business travel

Sustainable travel starts with better visibility – and with Pleo, the skies have never been clearer.

Teams can pay for travel using smart company cards, capture receipts instantly and track spending in real time. Finance teams get full visibility over flights, hotels and transport costs without chasing paperwork or waiting for expense reports.

Having that overview helps your business:

• Understand travel habits across teams
• Identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary trips
• Encourage more sustainable travel choices
• Align travel spending with internal policies and sustainability goals

Instead of chasing receipts and spreadsheets, teams get a clear view of their travel spending in one place. That means fewer admin headaches, clearer travel data and better insight into how your company spends on the road.

You don’t have to get everything perfect overnight to make business travel more sustainable. It’s about small, thoughtful decisions – travelling only when it matters, choosing greener options when possible and understanding how your company moves around the world.

Over time, those decisions add up. And with the right tools in place, businesses can manage travel in a way that’s better for both the planet and the company budget.