By Michael Hall, Manager of Global Travel, Johnson Controls

As the global leader in helping organizations maximize their energy efficiency and sustainability, we feel a special obligation to walk the talk here at Johnson Controls. As manager of global travel for the company, that translates into making sure our corporate travel is as green as it can be. It’s a challenging job – with 140,000 employees at 1,300 locations in 125 countries it goes without saying that our employees travel a lot. But by using a little common sense – and with some help from our travel partners – we’re definitely making a difference.

For example, in some European cities, we’ve reduced our use of rental cars, encouraging employees to use public transit alternatives. In other cities, we’re asking our people to look at public transit options and only rent a car when absolutely necessary. When employees do rent a car, we’ve negotiated an agreement with our vendor to reduce the number of unsolicited upgrades they give us, and we’ve shifted our policies to encourage employees to rent smaller vehicles that use less gas and emit fewer pollutants.

Also in Europe, we’ve shifted from air travel to rail between some destinations. On one of our heavier travel routes, between Paris and Strasbourg, France, we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 90% by choosing the train instead of a plane.

Obviously, airlines remain our main mode of long-distance travel, but we’re making progress here as well. The last time we solicited bids from airlines, we specifically asked them what they were doing – and what they planned to do – to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. We’re not penalizing airlines based on their responses, but we are trying to send a clear signal that they need to green their fleets to remain competitive. Happily, some – though not all – airlines are responding.

We’re putting technology to work wherever we can to lower the carbon footprint of our travel. I’ve been encouraging project teams that may be separated by many time zones to use video conferencing when it makes sense, instead of meeting in person. It takes some getting used to – particularly for groups that are accustomed to working face-to-face – but it’s catching on.

We’re asking our meeting planners to think local when they order food for events. That means when we’re hosting a luncheon in Atlanta it’s unlikely that Alaskan king crab legs will be on the menu. Food that travels fewer miles from the producer to our tables burns a lot less fuel.

And as often as possible, we book rooms in hotels that we know are greener than their competitors’. For example, we regularly check employees into the Holiday Inn Express in Brown Deer, a suburb of Milwaukee, home to our corporate offices and Building Efficiency business unit headquarters. This hotel is one of only a few with a feature that I really like: when you unlock the door to your room with your key card, the lights go on automatically. When you leave, they go off. Research shows that travelers aren’t always as conscious of turning off lights on the road as they are at home, so this feature saves energy despite the bad habits of some road warriors.

One thing that would make my job easier is a better way to measure our progress. If I want to increase the diversity of my suppliers, I can do that by doing more business with companies that are certified as minority- or women-owned businesses. But with travel, it’s not that easy. Various states in the U.S. and some countries have green travel certifications, but there’s virtually no consistency between them. Many function as little more than a marketing tool.

We definitely need a set of clear and uniform standards if we’re going to be able to say with any degree of certainty that we’re successfully greening our travel. In the meantime, we’ll keep working hard to do our part.

Efficiency Now. It’s never been more important.

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