Tech firms halve business travel in 2023 but Alphabet, Apple lag, study shows
Sept 11 (Reuters) -Global tech giants halved their business flight emissions in 2023 compared to 2019, but companies like Apple AAPL.O and Google's parent Alphabet GOOGL.O are falling behind, risking a return to pre-pandemic levels, a Brussels-based NGO said in a report.
Business travel last year approached pre-pandemic levels but trailed behind leisure trips, as geopolitical conflicts and a slower rebound in key markets hindered full recovery.
Emissions from corporate flights by 26 major tech companies analysed by Travel Smart, a campaign led by Transport & Environment (T&E) dropped by an average of 49% in 2023, it found.
While this shows that many tech firms are on the right path, only seven have set specific reduction targets that are essential to keeping business flight numbers in check, T&E said.
Alphabet, which has not set a goal to cut emissions, and Apple, which set a broader target, are slowly creeping back toward 2019 levels, T&E said.
The two were among the worst performers, with reductions in corporate travel emissions of just 23% and 31% in 2023, respectively.
"How can (Google chief) Sundar Pichai say that Google is progressing to a sustainable future when its travel emissions are going in the wrong direction?" said Denise Auclair, corporate travel manager at T&E.
Microsoft MSFT.O, IBM IBM.N, and SAP SAPG.DE, despite significant cuts, are also at risk as they are among the companies that fly the most without having set reduction goals, T&E said.
"Tech companies have claimed to be climate leaders for a long time and many have substantially reduced their business travel emissions, but if they want to be credible they must set reduction targets," Auclair added.
Asked about its performance, Apple said it has already reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 55% since 2015 as part of its goal to become carbon-neutral by 2030.
"We're achieving this by making reductions across our entire carbon footprint — including business travel — and implementing significant cuts to the largest sources of our emissions," a spokesperson for Apple told Reuters.
Other companies were not immediately available for comment.
Reporting by Dagmarah Mackos; Editing by Aurora Ellis
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
