1. REDUCING THE IMPACTS OF WORK-RELATED TRAVEL:
The business reasons and benefits: UK Organisations’ Experiences
Heather McInroy 4 November 2010
Programme Director
National Business Travel Network

2. Introduction
• National Business Travel Network
• Department for Transport Funded
• Hosted by Business in the Community

3. Why reduce work-related travel impacts?
• Environmental costs
• Financial costs
• Social / People costs

4. Environmental Impacts
• UK – 29% emissions from transport, second only
to energy at 35%
• 41.4% transport emissions from cars v 4% from
public transport
• 24% of car journeys < 2 miles, 57% < 5 miles
• 70% of UK workers drive to work – mainly one
person in one car
• 11% walk, 3% cycle, 12 % public transport, 4%
other

5. Commuting
25%
Business
13%
Shopping
13%
Visit friends at
private home
14%
Visit friends
elsewhere
3%
Holiday/ day trip
7%
Other leisure
6%
Other personal
business/ escort
16%
Education/ escort
education
3%
Estimated CO2 emissions from household car journeys

6. Financial Costs: Congestion
• Cost of congestion - £23.2 billion*
• A problem for 4 out of 5 businesses
• Lost business
• Recruitment difficulties
• Wasted time
• Increased costs
• A problem for the car commuter
• Wasted time and increased stress levels

7. Financial Costs : Car Parking
• Provision of parking is not free
• Surface level spaces costs £400 - £1000 pa per
space in running costs (interest, amortisation of
construction/major maintenance, cleaning, lining,
security, signing, landscaping, business rates etc)
• £2000 per space upwards in capital costs
excluding land costs.
• Multi-storey / underground car parks much higher
• Renting extra parking spaces can cost > £5 per
day per space

8. Costs to People,
society and business
Inactivity / stress
• 175 million working days lost due to ill health pa
• Costs to businesses of £8.4 billion a year
• ‘Presenteeism’ – £15.1 billion
• The longer people are off work, the less likely they
are to return
Deaths whilst travelling for work
• A third of deaths on UK roads
• Approximately 20 people per week killed whilst
travelling for work
• Another 250 injured
• Huge cost to businesses + immeasurable human
cost

9. Triple Bottom Line Benefits
• Environment – reduced emissions, more pleasant
environment
• People – less stress from travelling, better work/life
balance, more time, better health from more active
travelling, more community time
• Business:
• Reduced business travel costs
• Gained hours / improved productivity – from
reduced/sustainable business travel and commuting
• Office accommodation – remote / home working allows for
more effective use of office accommodation
• More effective land use
• Prepared for the future
• Contingency planning
• Reputational benefits

10. Businesses actively reducing car use

11. Active/Sustainable Travel

12. Alternatives to travel

13. • Reduction in business travel - £1.5 million saved in
2009 v 2008
• Reduction in commuter mileage – 1,492,102 miles and
491.3 tonnes of CO2
• Downturn in absenteeism with attendance up from an
average 97% in 2007 to 98.5% in 2009
• A reduction in sick leave of 2.2%
• Improved relations with neighbours as a direct result of

15. • Cost benefit ratio = 16:1
• Reduction in average sick days pa from 5.9 days in 2004
to 3.8 days in 2008
• 10.2 tonnes of CO2 saved pa by bus journeys
• 127.7 tonnes of CO2 saved by VC meetings from 2007-
2009
• £85,750 saved by VC on business travel
• Use of VC in Scotland up from 943 hours in 2007 to

16. Unilever
 Current number of rooms in use = 5
 Flight savings to date (11 full months only) = 658
 Cost savings on travel avoidance = over £2M
 Associated carbon emission reduction of over 1,300
tonnes
 Total cost savings measured by Unilever at over £3M in
11 months
 Total telepresence meeting attendees = 3,608

17.  Staff turnover reduced to 2.8% pa
 98% of women return from maternity leave
 Sick leave 20% below national average
 Home-workers productivity gains of 15–31 %
 Reduction in office space saved £220m in 10 years
 Each conference call replacing a face-to-face meeting
saves 88lbs of travel related CO2
 Cut business flights from 85130 to 65510
 Reduced flying distance by 12 million kms
 Reduced CO2 emissions > 1700 tonnes through
avoided flights

18. Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge
• ‘Access to Addenbrooke’s’ strategy document
• Only 34% staff drive to work
• 26% cycle – more than take the bus
• Result = on site expansion and resulting benefits

19. Smaller companies
 Scottish Legal Aid Board
 Overtime costs - £232k pa to £87k per annum
 Self-certificated sickness from 4.4 days per FTE to 3.3
 Recruitment advertising and agency costs from £125k pa to
£29k pa
 Staff turnover from 16% to 10%
 Computer Associates, Berkshire
 staff turnover reduced from 15% to 7.5%
 Focus Consultants (UK), Nottingham
 9% less business car mileage has saved £219 per employee pa

20. Laundry Ladies – 6 employees

21. A greener business doesn’t push people into being more
responsible, it makes it easy to make better choices

22. Introduced quirky travel incentives!
o Brompton pool bikes
o 40p p/m business cycling
o 5 minutes holiday per cycling/walking commute
o Commuting by bike / on foot increased 40%
o Business travel by bike from zero to 30%
o Reduced taxi bills by approximately 10%
Additional benefits are enhanced reputation,
improved morale and £ saving

23. IBM Start Smarter Transport Day

24. Launching new business led website – Nov ‘10

25. Conclusion
 UK Businesses are benefiting from reducing work-
related travel
 Travel behavioural change is possible – there are
successes out there
 There are barriers – cultural, structural and social
 Committed change managers can build the business
case and bring others on board
 Triple bottom line benefits

26. Thank you!
• www.bitc.org.uk – to find out more about Business in
the Community
• www.nbtn.org.uk – join the Network for free and use
our resources to help to reduce work-related travel
• http://www.bitc.org.uk/environment/mayday.html -
The Prince’s Mayday Network. Join up for free and use
the new low carbon journey interactive tool
• Contact heather.mcinroy@bitc.org.uk or
ana.svab@bitc.org.uk