Abstract
Business travel contributes to significant greenhouse gas emissions, and there is a need for measures that reduce the demand for trips made with energy-intensive means of transport. In this study, a mobility service application (MSA) introduced in 13 Swedish organisations was tested and evaluated to facilitate booking and handling of business trips, in particular public transport. A before and after study consisting of surveys and interviews with employees at the organisations were conducted. The results show that the MSA was mostly used for regional and local public transport trips, and the users stated that the MSA made it easier to travel by public transport, although this particular result should be seen as tentative due to the small sample size. Three factors that influence the success of a new MSA as a means to increase sustainable business trips were identified: management control and proactiveness; perceived improvement of intervention; functions and technical sufficiency. The results also highlight the need to establish organisational conditions that facilitate sustainable business travel, such as coherent travel policy, accessibility to sustainable modes of transport, and a culture that encourages environmentally friendly behaviour. The study suggests improvements that can be made to similar interventions and strategies that can be introduced to promote sustainable business travel.
Highlights
Fossil fuel use is a primary contributor to human-induced carbon dioxide emissions, which aggravate global climate change [1]
The current study aims to fill in this research gap by demonstrating a new mobility service application (MSA) for business trips in Sweden and to evaluate it within the context of organisational travel management and practices
We compare various statistics on MSA users and non-users in order to see whether there are any significant differences in the populations that may influence the evaluation of the intervention
Summary
Fossil fuel use is a primary contributor to human-induced carbon dioxide emissions, which aggravate global climate change [1]. Transport is responsible for almost 25% of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions [2]. Promoting more sustainable and energy-efficient travel behaviour is of substantial interest, and there is mostly a consensus among transport researchers on the need for levels of transport to be reduced in order for the sector to contribute to more sustainable development [6,7]. In order to reach these ambitious targets a number of measures need to be introduced including changing transport behaviour [8,9]. Business travel does relate to the individual traveller’s behaviour and conditions, and to policies and the organisational culture around business travel. Even if a travel policy is present, research has shown that employees enjoy relative large freedom, management, to decide on whether to take a trip and by what travel mode [27]
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