Clarity’s sustainability event sparks new working group
Read about our sustainability journey with customers, sharing insights from our ESG Knowledge Exchange.
Article Contributors
A new working group dedicated to sustainability will be launched, largely made up of customers who attended our first virtual Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Knowledge Exchange in October.
As a continuation of our popular Knowledge Exchange calendar of events, which has previously covered trending topics like hotel programme RFPs and rail, this was our first virtual event to specialise in sustainability. It gave our customers the opportunity to take part in live polls with their peers and learn from our experts as well as each other.
Over 60 industry professionals attended the virtual event, including Travel Managers, alongside representatives from Sustainability, Risk Management, and CSR teams within their organisations for the first time. We welcomed a mix of customers from the utilities, retail, and academia sectors, each at different stages of their own sustainability journeys.
We conducted live polls to steer the content, finding that the majority of our customers wanted to implement carbon budgets and were already reporting scopes 1 and 2. Only 10% had implemented carbon budgets, and just 13% were reporting all scopes across all categories.
The event enabled knowledge sharing from our Account Management Team, who led the event, alongside our Director of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability, Kirsty Given, who covered our own sustainability strategy, roadmap, and supply chain assurance.
Our team covered customer best practice, the importance of expert connections (such as our partnerships with Greengage and Thrust), as well as the sustainable solutions we’re making 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 our 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 our customers a direct channel into Clarity, so their feedback can influence our ongoing sustainability roadmap, and it highlighted the need for an advisory network that 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 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 to 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 of our 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 our Account Management Team, the next virtual Knowledge Exchange will cover small meetings and online technology in December.
