The Institute of Travel Management named the winners of its second annual
Project Icarus environmental awards, recognizing those companies that exhibited leadership in developing sustainable travel programs.
The "corporate team winner" was PricewaterhouseCoopers and Hogg Robinson Group. "A focus on changing the travel behaviour of the 20 percent of staff that creates 80 percent of its travel demand has lead to significant adoption of video conferencing, switches to lower-emission travel modes and lobbying of travel suppliers to green their businesses," according to ITM. "PwC's travel implant, HRG, has been instrumental in helping it achieve these changes."
Other winners included:
• British Airways (air category) for its environmental reporting, offset options for customers, lobbying for aviation's inclusion in the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme and using its "financial clout" to fund alternative fuel research
• Eurostar (rail category) for targeting a 25 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions per traveler journey by 2012
• London's The Cavendish Hotel (hotel category), which "is close to having the lowest CO2 emissions per room in the four-star sector"
• TRX (technology category) for offering "the best currently available air travel CO2 emissions calculator"
• Carlson Wagonlit Travel (agency category) for its "integrated suite of environmental management products and services"
No winners this year were recognized in the ground transportation and consultancy categories.
According to ITM, the environmental awards judging panel was chaired by Dr. Keith Mason of Cranfield University's Business Travel Research Centre, and included "eight environmental and business travel experts, including four doctors and professors from academic establishments around the United Kingdom."