Analysis of Impacts and Trade-offs from Changes to Short-Haul Business Travel Policies in Europe to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Abstract

This research contributes to the identification and understanding of key criteria important for business travel decision-making and policy implementation, as well as improved understanding of the potential effectiveness of air to train travel mode shifts for short-haul European travel as part of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction efforts for multinational corporations (MNCs). It also offers first deliberations on value associated with potential productive or rest time during travel, as a consideration for corporate travel policies. I analyzed the impact of alternative corporate travel policies, for travel of up to 1,500 km within Europe, based on a case study of actual business travel data over a 1- year period from an MNC. Through utilizing scenario analysis and Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), the research aimed to illustrate the impact that corporate travel policies can have on GHG emissions and other metrics of strategic importance for companies, such as cost, travel time, and other elements of time associated with travel. It also aimed to illustrate and thus better understand trade-offs arising from each scenario. The research examined the questions of 1) which scenario would lead to the biggest potential reduction in GHG emissions, 2) which scenario could be considered best from a total economic cost perspective (where all relevant metrics were assigned proxies to calculate a single comparable figure across scenarios) and similarly, 3) which scenario would be considered best (lowest net cost) if a value (benefit) was included for potential productive or rest time during the travel time. The net cost calculation included a proportion (0.5) of associated benefit for potentially productive or restful travel time. I hypothesized that the compulsory use of train for trips, wherever a connection was available (i.e., scenario 8, all possible train connections) would result in the lowest total GHG emissions, the lowest total economic costs, and the lowest net economic costs. Depending on the proposed GHG reduction strategy (scenario), and the level of travel mode substitution resulting from it, up to 76% of short-haul GHG emissions could be reduced through the substitution of air travel with train travel for the case study MNC analyzed. The differences in GHG emission reductions compared to the base case scenario ranged from 6%-76% across the alternative scenarios, whilst differences to costs ranged from -10% to +1%. When comparing the scenarios via the CBA, scenario 1 (substitution of "very short" flights) had the lowest total economic costs and scenario 5 (substitution where direct connection exists) had lowest net economic costs. The overall results substantiated just one of the three hypotheses, as scenario 8 (all possible train connections) led to the lowest total GHG emissions but was not the scenario with the lowest total and net economic costs, as expected.