Association Ensures 2009 Convention Meets High Sustainability Standards
 

      CONTACT:        Caleb Tiller, +1 703-684-0836, ext. 138

                    Nicole Hayes, +1 703-684-0836, ext. 133

Alexandria, VA (August 19, 2009) –The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee today offered a preview of the enhanced NBTA CSR Toolkit, created to help companies launch and effectively execute travel-related corporate social responsibility initiatives. The reformatted toolkit, designed as an interactive resource guide rather than a printed publication, offers corporations added insights into emerging CSR concepts. 

Leilani Latimer, vice chair of the NBTA CSR Committee, said, “As companies begin implementing environmental sustainability and duty of care principles in their travel programs to enhance their broad CSR initiatives, they will find extreme value in using the NBTA CSR Toolkit.  The advanced version is intended for beginners and experts alike thanks to its modular design; travel management professionals can use the entire toolkit or just the chapters that interest them.”

In the updated CSR Toolkit, corporate travel managers are provided with various solutions to achieve the maximum value of a business trip in supporting demand management while simultaneously promoting high-value business travel. Integrating technologies such as video web meetings and telepresence systems into a sustainable travel management program and measuring all travel options are part and parcel of the new toolkit.

Responsible procurement is also a key component of the new toolkit as buyers are urged to influence vendors to innovate products and services with sustainability characteristics. Questions that address suppliers’ sustainability credentials are provided and organized by travel sector, such as airlines, ground transportation, and meetings and events. A vendor response evaluation process is also provided.

NBTA CSR Committee member Mary Ellen George added, “While environmental protection is an important element of corporate social responsibility, updates to the CSR toolkit provide guidance and examples of other vital elements corporations can consider when choosing components that best fit their need for balanced corporate mobility, sustainability and cost effectiveness, especially in today’s trying times.”

To NBTA’s CSR efforts, the association this year worked with Green Globe Productions, an eco-responsible event production company, to implement enhanced socially responsible elements into the annual Convention and future NBTA events. And, for the second year in a row, NBTA will be offsetting the carbon footprint of the annual Convention with Carbonfund.org, who this year for the first time has provided a link directly from the Convention web site for attendees to calculate and reduce their own carbon footprint produced by travel to the Convention. Please visit www.nbtaconvention.org/goinggreen to learn more about NBTA Convention green efforts.  

The enhanced CSR toolkit will be available on USB drive wrist bands to attendees of the 2009 NBTA Convention at Discover NBTA booth (#1127). The CSR Committee will offer a detailed look at the enhanced toolkit in Educational Session TA11 – CSR, Sustainability & Travel: Doing More with Less, to be held Tuesday, August 25 at 8:30 a.m. in the San Diego Convention Center. The toolkit will also be available on NBTA’s website: www.nbta.org.

About the 2009 NBTA International Convention & Exposition

Widely recognized as the must-attend event for business travel buyers, suppliers, industry leaders and business travel journalists, the 2009 NBTA International Convention & Exposition will be held in San Diego August 23-26, 2009.  More than 5,000 travel professionals are expected to take advantage of the Convention’s programming, designed to empower attendees to maximize value for their companies, including more than 65 seminars on the most important topics in business travel, more than 400 companies exhibiting in the Expo and countless opportunities for networking with peers. For details, visit www.nbtaconvention.org. 

About Carbonfund.org
Carbonfund.org is the leading nonprofit carbon offset and climate solutions organization, making it easy and affordable for individuals, businesses and organizations to reduce and offset their climate impact. Carbon offsets enable individuals and businesses to reduce carbon dioxide emissions they are responsible for in their everyday lives by supporting third-party validated renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects where they are most cost effective. Carbonfund.org has over 450,000 individual supporters and works with over 1,200 business and nonprofit partners. Visit www.carbonfund.org.

The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) is the world’s premier business travel and corporate meetings organization. NBTA and its regional affiliates – NBTA Australia / New Zealand, the Brazilian Business Travel Association (ABGEV), NBTA Canada, NBTA Europe, NBTA Mexico, and NBTA USA – serve a network of more than 17,000 business travel professionals around the globe with industry-leading events, networking, education & professional development, research, news & information, and advocacy. NBTA members, numbering more than 5,000 in 30 nations, are corporate and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers. They collectively manage and direct more than US$340 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually on behalf of more than 13 million business travelers within their organizations. For more information, visit www.nbta.org