CSR Standards Higher at Companies than Suppliers

Corporations set higher social responsibility standards for themselves than for their travel suppliers, according to a survey by business travel payment and data management firm AirPlus International.

Some 55.4 percent of surveyed businesses implement green initiatives but just 41.7 percent of those businesses expected such programs from their travel suppliers, according to CSR Initiatives Through the Travel Supply Chain.

Despite CSR increasingly becoming part of the corporate world, few RFPs and decisions are currently taken to pick preferred travel suppliers, according to the survey.

Over 61 percent of businesses surveyed had no plans to include CSR criteria in supplier RFPs. Just 13.3 percent of businesses currently sought such information in RFPs, the survey says.

But most businesses claim that suppliers’ CSR and green initiatives do factor to some extent in their decisions on what businesses to select as travel suppliers. Some 60 percent of businesses surveyed said such programs were either considered (43.4 percent), important (14.9 percent) or critical (1.7 percent) when selecting a supplier. Twelve percent of respondents never consider suppliers’ CSR programs, according to the survey.

In April, financial firm ING Group revealed that it had remained carbon neutral despite increasing the amount of air travel its employees undertake by 25 percent.

The company’s total CO2 footprint rose one percent between 2009 and 2010, in part because of the increase in car and air travel, ING said.