Published: 21 Apr 2008:Travelport has introduced an advanced post-booking reporting tool, Travelport Carbon Tracker, designed for travel agencies and corporations to address the growing demand to measure and report carbon emissions as part of a sustainable travel programme.
The tool takes advantage of the latest developments in emissions calculation. It is being described as one of the first corporate tools to combine industry-standard compliance reporting with an advanced calculator that uses operational data and a range of key variables to deliver more sophisticated emissions analysis.
Developed in conjunction with Agresso and The Carbon Consultancy, the Travelport Carbon Tracker has been designed to provide intelligence to inform and enable sustainable travel decision-making.
In contrast to many existing carbon calculators, the Travelport Carbon Tracker is not directly linked to specific "offsetting" programmes and is designed for use with multiple Global Distribution Systems (GDS), stated the company.
Jeff Clarke, president and CEO of Travelport, said, "At the core of all `carbon mindful´ initiatives is the measurement of carbon emissions, yet carbon measurement itself is a relatively new and emerging science. Research is still needed to improve on the accuracy of data gathering, calculation and reporting solutions. As an active member of the travel industry, we are cognizant of the critical environmental issues we all face and are committed to finding the best possible solutions."
Other than measuring emissions for business intelligence, the company focuses on encouraging debate and collaboration in terms of emissions benchmarking; and to enable corporations to make informed decisions for sustainable travel as part of their overall travel policies.
The Travelport Carbon Tracker utilises a graphical interface and task-orientated approach that enables users to rapidly calculate and compare accurate CO2 analyses for each itinerary and obtain information on carbon emissions across multiple travel types (air, rail and car). It has built-in report-generation capabilities and can merge information from back-office systems. The Travelport Carbon Tracker is also designed to provide neutral and unbiased carbon emission measurements across multiple GDSs.
According to Travelport, the tool provides corporations with a more accurate measurement of emissions and is a vital step towards a better understanding of how to more effectively manage carbon footprints.
