A new working group dedicated to sustainability will be launched, largely made up of customers who attended Clarity’s first virtual Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG)Knowledge Exchange in October.
As a continuation of their popular Knowledge Exchange calendar of events, which previously covered trending topics like hotel programme RFPs and rail, this was the first virtual event to specialise in sustainability. It gave customers the opportunity to take part in live polls with their peers and learn from Clarity’s experts as well as each other.
Over 60 industry professionals attended the virtual event, comprising Travel Managers alongside Sustainability, Risk Management and CSR representatives from their organisationsfor the first time. There were a mix of customers from the utilities, retail and academia sectors, each evidently on their own different sustainability journeys.
Live polls were conducted, which steered the content, finding that the majority of customerswanted to implement carbon budgets and were already reporting scopes 1 and 2, and only 10% had already implemented carbon budgets and 13% reporting all scopes across all categories.
The event enabled knowledge sharing from Clarity’s Account Management Team, who led the event, alongside Clarity’s Director of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability, Kirsty Given, who covered Clarity’s own sustainability strategy, roadmap and supply chain assurance.
The Clarity team covered customer best practice, the importance of expert connections (such as Clarity’s partnership with Greengage and Thrust), as well as the sustainable solutions available to customers in the future.
Amanda Norrie, National Grid’s Travel and Policy Lead, said: “It was such a valuable session and a relevant topic that gave a great insight into what Clarity is doing. It’s great to see how we can align and work better moving forward to reach our sustainable goals.”
Kirsty Given highlighted how ESG is becoming a more welcome part of the daily conversation: “Understanding the variation of knowledge and noting the sheer amount of questions asked, shows how much customers have valued this session and want to be part of the conversation. It was clear that attendees genuinely wanted to listen and come with us on this journey. Events like this give customers a direct channel into Clarity so their feedback can influence our ongoing sustainability roadmap and it highlighted the need for an advisory networkthat will help us validate and shape what comes next.”
“We’ve been working behind the scenes to chart our path forward with sustainability, with a clear strategy that sets us on a transparent and responsible trajectory internally as a business. Through the solutions we are delivering and developing for our customers; there is a real sense of momentum going into 2025, knowing we have the right tech, the right people and the right partners so we can deliver some amazing features and functionality. The new working group that has come out of this event will be instrumental to that,” Kirsty continued.
Many customers have already applied to join the new sustainability working group. This includes Zoe Booth, Net Zero Advisor for the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, who said: “It’s been great to see Clarity’s proactive engagement with customers like us through the Sustainability Knowledge Exchange. By openly discussing progress to date and future aspirations, Clarity has provided us with a clearer understanding of its commitment to sustainability.
We look forward to being a part of Clarity’s journey, through its ESG working group, to help advance travel data analytics, which we use for our own environmental reporting, informing internal policies and making informed decisions that will drive us towards our Net Zero targets.”
Organised by Clarity’s Account Management Team, the next virtual Knowledge Exchange will cover small meetings and online technology in December.
