Pictured: Owner Karen Simmonds
Independent travel agency Travel Matters hopes to boost sustainable working practices among staff across the travel industry after announcing an exclusive tie-up.
The agency, based in Clapham, London, has partnered with employee engagement specialist Jump and will exclusively promote the organisation to the rest of the trade.
Jump supplies programmes to businesses to encourage sustainable behaviour among their staff. This could include switching off computers and appliances, recycling, commuting sustainably, such as on public transport, walking, cycling or car-sharing, and offsetting emissions if using unavoidable flights for business.
Travel companies which sign up to Jump will get their own branded app and website for staff to access. Points will be awarded for positive behaviour and there will be leader boards with prizes for top-performing teams and individuals.
Travel Matters is the agency behind the Make Travel Matter campaign, which aims to create awareness and teach holidaymakers to travel more responsibly.
Owner Karen Simmonds said: “This is a natural next step for Our Make Travel Matter campaign as we in the travel industry need to play our part in tackling the climate crisis.
“Jump is a great practical way to encourage colleagues to take positive environmental actions, and through our network in the industry built up over the last 20 years I’m hopeful we can introduce Jump to travel companies large and small.
“If all of us do small practical things like recycling more and saving energy, that will add up to a huge cumulative impact.”
Travel Matters based in Clapham, London
Jump, which is already well-established in sectors such as financial services, universities and the public sector, has a broad range of clients including Barclays, the University of Bristol and Manchester NHS Trust. Typically, companies which work with Jump see a third of staff sign up and get involved in its activities.
Freya Pratt, responsible for business development at Jump, said: “It’s really exciting to be entering the travel sector through this new partnership with Travel Matters, particularly as their Make Travel Matter campaign has already done so much to raise social and environmental issues. We’re looking forward to helping travel companies get their colleagues engaged practically in sustainability.”
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In January, Travel Matters signed up to Tourism Declares, a collective of 68 travel companies working together to bring about change.
As part of this the agency declared a climate emergency and plans a series of actions this year to make itself a more responsible business. It is currently developing its own climate emergency plan and is calling for urgent change to move the industry towards zero carbon air travel.
The agency has highlighted that global tourism is responsible for 5% of greenhouse gas emissions, according the House of Commons’ environmental audit committee. The travel sector currently employs more than 300 million people globally.
Last year Travel Matters partnered with Climate Perks, a scheme for employers which rewards staff for taking alternative routes of travel by offering paid journey days for employees who travel by land or sea.
The agency is also committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations and plants trees through the charity Trees for Cities for each holiday booking made to help counter unavoidable emissions.