Travel companies have been urged to “put nature on the balance sheet” by the former president of the National Farmers’ Union.
Speaking on a panel at Abta’s Travel Convention, Minette Batters urged firms to make bold decisions on sustainability and ensure it is core to their entire businesses to bring about change.
She said: “What businesses need is a single metric; we have to have a new structure for sustainability that puts nature on the balance sheet.”
Batters also called for the middle layer of government, from civil servants to scientists, to “step up”, not just in the UK but globally, to provide leadership on the issue of sustainability. “There is a pressing need for businesses to have the machinery of government step up,” she said.
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EasyJet holidays and MSC Cruises both said they were already embracing sustainability from the top down in their companies.
Chief operating officer Matt Callaghan said easyJet holidays’ focus was as much on ESG as on areas such as customer engagement, and stressed the importance of having the whole business on board to bring about change.
He said: “Our sustainability team is 350 people. We democratise our approach to ESG. We are very clear on the involvement that we need from all people in our business.
“The passion that people can bring is invaluable to us; we want to transform travel for everyone to drive meaningful change across travel. That means we need innovative ideas. We invite as many people as possible to be involved in the journey.”
He admitted some changes were not easy, giving the example of the company’s animal welfare policy earlier this year. “I’d be lying if I said everyone was on board,” he said, but added its success was demonstrated by a competitor following suit.
“Bold decisions by companies like ours can drive change in the industry,” he insisted.
MSC Cruises vice-president of sustainability and ESG Linden Coppell agreed: “We are having to educate at board level and we are looking at all areas that are fundamental to the business. We are trying to get the right messages from the top and putting them into solid governance practices that lead to actual policies.”
She said there was a growing awareness of the need to be responsible by consumers but it lay with companies to take action.
“We need to be showing ourselves to be responsible. Guests would have an underlying expectation that we are doing the right thing,” she said.
The line is now looking at sustainability in terms of all products on board, such as carbon emissions of food eaten on board, not just on fuel.
“It’s about how we design the ships, what materials we use, food and beverage. We are looking at ways we can enable change,” she said, adding: “We always thought it [being sustainable] was about the operation of our ships. We are going to face challenges if we cannot make bold decisions on food.”
She urged the industry to focus more on achieving progress.
She said: “There is a lot of enthusiasm but this is about channelling that to get progress. We are a heavily compliant focused industry. It’s moving from cherry picking what you want to looking more scientifically at issues you want to focus on.”