Sustainability and resilience as a package deal

Businesses are under growing pressure to manage multiple priorities at once, from controlling costs and maintaining continuity to reducing their environmental impact. Yet two-fifths have cut back or delayed green initiatives as part of efforts to reduce costs, despite most (68%) recognising such a narrow focus could harm the business in the long term.

 

This overlooks the fact that sustainability does not need to be pursued at the expense of wider business goals. Rather than pursuing each objective separately, businesses should introduce systems that strengthen their operations as a whole. Improvements that make an organisation more responsive and efficient can also help it reduce emissions.

 

Business travel provides a clear example. The right policies, booking tools and information can help organisations adapt when plans change, maintain business continuity and make lower-carbon journeys easier to identify. This is increasingly important as UK business travel is affected by extreme weather, industrial action and rising costs. Businesses cannot prevent these pressures, but they can determine how effectively they respond.

 

 

Build flexibility into everyday systems

Businesses can be reluctant to introduce new processes when they appear likely to involve significant cost or complexity. The same is true for employees. Even when people understand the value of a particular choice, they are less likely to make it if doing so requires additional research or a more complicated process.

 

The answer is not simply to ask employees to prioritise sustainability or resilience more often. Businesses need to remove the friction that prevents them from doing so. When the most appropriate choice is clearly presented and easy to book, it becomes part of normal decision-making rather than an additional task.

 

Business travel is an area where this can make a tangible difference. Employees often need to arrange journeys quickly while managing cancellations or delays. An effective rail platform can shorten the booking process, bring the available options together and help travellers react with greater confidence when plans change.

 

 

Use data to anticipate disruption

Access to clear and regularly updated data is key for businesses to understand where they are most exposed. Information on travel patterns, emissions and reliability can show how a travel programme is performing and where weaknesses may lie.

 

An overreliance on a particular route, mode of transport or supplier may leave employees with few alternatives when circumstances change. Recognising that risk early gives businesses time to consider other options and build greater flexibility into their policies.

 

Once those alternatives are visible, organisations can make better-informed decisions. This means looking beyond the immediate ticket price and considering how reliable a route is, what alternatives exist and what the wider environmental impact may be. Bringing these considerations together helps businesses choose options that work in the moment while supporting longer-term goals.

 

 

From fragmented information to informed action

There are now countless platforms, tools and sources of information for businesses when making decisions. This is a double-edged sword as it provides an unprecedented level of access to information, while also making it harder to identify the best option quickly, particularly when circumstances change.

 

Fragmented information means that employees are forced to allocate more time to administrative tasks to ensure that they are not missing out on the best options. Research conducted by Trainline Business has shown that a third of business travellers compare journeys across several providers before making a choice, and almost two-thirds (63%) of business travellers feel overwhelmed by travel admin.

 

Bringing this information together in one place can reduce friction and make it easier for employees to reach a confident decision. In business travel, this could mean being able to compare alternative routes, train operating companies, costs and emissions data through a single platform. By presenting these clearly, businesses can help employees respond more effectively to disruption and make decisions that support wider organisational priorities.

 

 

Sustainability and resilience as a package deal

Leadership has an important role to play in making this work. Technology and data are most effective when supported by clear company-wide policies that make expectations easy to understand.

 

Employees are more likely to make appropriate choices when those choices are built into everyday processes. This avoids placing the responsibility on individuals to interpret competing priorities each time they travel and makes the desired approach part of business as usual.

 

Businesses should introduce these systems before disruption exposes weaknesses in the way they operate. Doing so will help employees make clearer decisions during normal operations and respond more effectively when plans change.

 

By treating sustainability and resilience as outcomes of stronger systems, rather than separate initiatives, organisations can support both without losing sight of wider business needs.

 

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Sophie Fleming is Global Head of Trainline Business

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and monkeybusinessimages