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How high are your ambitions?

To support your efforts in working with Travel & Transportation, we have put together a list of key actions you can take. Consider these a starting point. A guide, and not a final checklist. It is meant to get you started on building your own list of actions and help you meet your sustainability ambitions.

High ambitions

If you have high ambitions in Travel & Transportation you can commit to the following:

Encourage participants to travel by train or public transport. If public transport is not an option, encourage people to fly directly (or with as few layovers as possible) and with the most energy efficient airlines.
Have at least 90% of transport suppliers focus on minimising carbon emissions.
Use suppliers with a clear sustainability strategy and if possible with a 3rd party sustainability certification and a sustainability management system and embedded in supplier contract.
Provide and promote bicycles for participants.
If taxis are necessary, partner with companies using electric cars.
Use local speakers and panellists to limit carbon emissions from air travel or use digital technology instead of flying them in.
Limit transportation by using suppliers as close to your venue as possible.
Offset your own and all participants’ flights and transport emissions.
Establish virtual participation opportunities and hybrid solutions for those participants who decide not to attend physically due to environmental concerns, for instance by having live-streams to local meeting hubs or open live-streams and recordings. Here are some cases during the pandemic on how it has been done in Copenhagen
Make an effort to inspire your participants to make more sustainable transport choices when travelling to future events.
Encourage participants to extend their stay for vacation purposes to limit the amount of flights.
Work with suppliers supporting or incorporating circular business models.
Set goals, targets and KPI's, and measure them

Medium ambitions

If you have medium ambitions in Travel & Transportation you can commit to the following:

Have at least 50% of transport suppliers focus on minimising carbon emissions.
Offset your own flight and transport emissions and encourage participants to do the same.
Promote the use of bicycles and public transportation by participants.
Use local speakers and panellists to limit carbon emissions from air travel.
Establish virtual participation opportunities.
Encourage participants to extend their stay for vacation purposes to limit the amount of flights.

Modest ambitions

If you have modest ambitions in Travel & Transportation you can commit to the following:

Encourage participants to reduce carbon emissions in their travel plans when possible.
Communicate local public transport options and make zero-emission vehicles part of the local transport planning.
Promote the use of bicycles by participants.
Encourage participants to extend their stay for vacation purposes to limit the amount of flights.

Why is it important

According to a published article in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change (2018) travel & tourism related activity accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions, a figure set to rise. Transportation, especially air travel, is by far the biggest environmental issue for events, making up on average 70-80% of the total event footprint. Key questions to ask yourself are:

How much can you reduce the number of flights taken by staff, particularly participants and audience members?
What are ways of transporting people around the city using zero-emission transport, e.g. e-busses, biking, walking or other alternatives?
Are you, your participants and your audience members offsetting emissions by supporting certified offset schemes?

Working with Copenhagen on transport and getting around

Copenhagen is known as one of the best cities in Europe for sustainable transportation, largely thanks to the city’s famous bicycle culture and infrastructure.

In addition, an efficient public transport system and short walking distances between hotels make it easy for your event participants to get around Copenhagen in a fun, efficient and sustainable way.

Among sustainable options available for event transport are:

Easy access bike-sharing schemes across Copenhagen, including e-bikes. Encourage your participants to join the locals by renting a bike when exploring the city, where bikes have outnumbered cars. We have gathered a list of Copenhagen Bike Rentals here.
A modern, efficient metro with a 10 minute journey directly to the city centre from Copenhagen Airport, as part of the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme.
A public transport bus system that is already under conversion and will be running fully on zero-emission vehicles by 2025. Your participants can enjoy unlimited travel by bus, train and metro using a City Pass. For larger international conventions in Copenhagen with over 1,000 participants, organisers or associations can offer their delegates easy and inexpensive public transportation with a Travel Pass (conditions apply).
Taxi companies with an increasing number of electric vehicles (EV), some are even dedicated to being exclusively run by EVs.
International car-sharing schemes, offers by-the-minute EV renting. As part of the green mobility solutions of the future, Share-now and Greenmobility offers an electric free-float carsharing platform. Adding to the new era of car-sharing, whether you need to rent a car for 2 minutes or 2 days, with the cars available at every street corner.