Canada

Environment

Almost any organization today, regardless of industry, depletes natural resources in the process of accomplishing business, and CWT is no different. While our own operations contribute to this, most significant is the fact that we facilitate travel for millions of travelers every day, all of whom are generating an impact based on their use of airlines, hotels, ground transportation, restaurants, and more.  But, rather than let that deter us, we use it as motivation to do whatever we can to mitigate negative environmental outcomes, on behalf of ourselves and our clients.

Making CWT a more sustainable business
In terms of improving its own environmental impact, CWT North America’s Environmental Committee plays a critical role. It includes more than 40 employees and organizes itself by six areas of primary focus:

• Green printing – encourages reduced levels of printing by all employees by raising awareness and providing education on ways to be more conservative with paper.

• Green kitchen – strives to make kitchen and break room spaces at CWT offices more green by converting to reusable and washable dishes and utensils, using environmentally friendly cleaning products, etc.

• Green supplier – ensures CWT’s preferred suppliers to respect our commitment to improved environmental practices by requesting they avoid bringing presentations or other materials in printed form, asking them to avoid the use of disposable products when bringing in food, and more.

• Recycling initiative – liaises with CWT office locations across North America to ensure they are equipped to facilitate recycling of various materials onsite. In leased buildings where the owner or management company does not provide pick-up services for recycling, CWT makes arrangements with a third party to do so.

• Green power group – advocates for reduced use of gas and electricity by the organization as a whole, by focusing on employee communication and education. As part of its efforts, this group facilitated an environmental assessment that resulted in a 10% year-over-year reduction in CWT North America’s Carbon Dioxide Equivalent, or carbon footprint, for 2010 vs. 2009.

• Eco-friendly paper purchasing – currently exploring the potential for CWT to increasingly purchase eco-friendly paper products for remaining paper needs.

Beyond the Environmental Committee’s efforts, others at CWT also incorporate elements of sustainability into many areas of our business practices, from transitioning all client communication vehicles to an electronic-only format, to making donations or planting trees in lieu of gifts for clients and partners, to adopting a green philosophy for as many internal and external meetings and conferences as possible.

Improving the sustainability of travel for clients
Based on the business we’re in, the most significant opportunity for CWT to make a difference on our environment is by helping our clients mitigate the environmental impacts of their travel. We do this in a variety of ways:

• Products – our CWT Sustainable Solutions product suite includes tools for travelers and travel buyers to make better decisions. Our Carbon Calculator is available to travelers as they research and book travel, allowing them to compare the carbon emissions generated by various options, including between airline suppliers and with air vs. rail on routes where both modes are available. CWT also provides carbon emissions reporting to its clients to enable a comprehensive view of the travel program’s impact. Finally, CWT facilitates carbon offsetting for clients by connecting interested organizations to our partner, The Carbon Neutral Company, which provides multiple offsetting options and certification for organizations.
  
  
• Consulting – environmental impacts can be addressed via many aspects of sourcing and optimizing a travel program, from incorporating related questions into requests for proposals (RFPs) to creating custom reports that provide travel buyers visibility into the environmental metrics they care most about. The CWT Solutions Group recently took this a step further by developing a 2-pronged environmental hotel offering that consists of a carbon footprint calculator that enables property-by-property comparisons, and a hotel green index that ranks properties on a scale based on the environmental friendliness of its facilities and services.
  
  
• Meetings & Events – CWT helps clients reduce the environmental impact of their meetings and events through ongoing consulting, as well as a green meetings calculator that examines the impact of various options in the areas of meetings destinations, transportation, lodging, communications and signage, venue selection, and food/beverage choices.
  
  
• Travel alternatives – while much can be gained by traveling more green, another way to reduce the environmental impact of a travel program is by reducing travel itself. This can be accomplished by directing some types of travel to alternatives when appropriate, such as web-conferencing or telepresence. CWT facilitates this for clients via its CWT Telepresence offering, which helps clients redirect traveler behavior as needed, handles the booking of telepresence rooms, and provides reporting that helps clients understand their total volumes for travel and travel alternatives and identify areas for further improvement.