Published on
November 10, 2025
By: Tuhin Sarkar
Business travel’s sustainability push has been making headlines for years, but why is it still stalled? Despite growing commitments and ambitious goals, companies are struggling to make real progress in decarbonising their business travel programs.
The barriers to success are numerous and often hidden in plain sight. In many cases, organisations face challenges in implementing effective sustainable practices, particularly in high-impact areas like sustainable procurement and emissions reduction. While the intention to push for sustainability in business travel is strong, companies must overcome several obstacles that are holding them back from realising their green travel ambitions.
These unseen barriers, from regulatory hurdles to a lack of technological enablement, prevent businesses from fully embracing sustainability in their travel programs. Travel and Tour World urges readers to dig deeper into the unseen barriers to sustainable business travel and discover the critical steps companies must take to accelerate this much-needed transformation.
The Urgency of Sustainable Business Travel: What the 2025 Global Benchmark Report Reveals
In the face of growing environmental urgency, businesses worldwide have committed to decarbonising their travel programs, but the latest figures tell a troubling story. The 2025 GBTA Sustainability Acceleration Challenge paints a picture of commitment and slow progress. The global benchmark report, based on data from 285 companies spending $22 billion annually on business travel, shows that while companies are engaged, their actions to make real change in high-impact areas remain limited. Despite some gains, significant work remains if companies are to keep pace with the urgent demands of climate change.
The Global Push for Sustainability: A Commitment That’s Falling Short
The findings of the GBTA Sustainability Acceleration Challenge are both encouraging and alarming. On the one hand, companies are committed to reducing carbon emissions from their business travel. On the other, their actual progress in high-impact areas, like sustainable procurement and carbon management strategies, is painfully slow. While participation in the challenge has grown by 20% compared to last year, moving from 235 to 285 companies, the overall improvement in maturity has been marginal. The global average score for sustainability maturity is just 1.4 out of 5, showing minimal overall progress.
Regions Struggling: The European and North American Setbacks
While global and APAC (Asia-Pacific) regions have made slight improvements in their sustainable travel programs, Europe and North America show a worrying dip in progress. The causes are linked to regulatory changes and economic uncertainty, which have likely slowed some companies’ sustainability initiatives. In particular, smaller travel programs (those under $5M) have seen notable progress, while the largest programs, with budgets over $500M, have regressed. This could suggest that while large companies are under intense public scrutiny, they may be slowing their sustainability efforts to avoid potential backlash or because of competing priorities.
Financial Sector Leads, But Still Too Slow: A Glimmer of Hope or a False Dawn?
Certain industries have managed to show greater progress than others, with the financial, banking, and insurance sectors leading the charge in sustainability. This is not entirely surprising, as these sectors typically have a large share of their emissions coming from business travel. In fact, these industries boast a maturity score of 1.9, the highest of any sector. However, even they are not moving fast enough. Sustainability leadership in business travel is essential for setting the stage for a green future, but it is clear that despite some improvements, these industries have a long way to go before achieving true sustainability in their travel operations.
Where Corporations Are Winning: Cost-Positive Sustainability Practices on the Rise
There is some good news for those who believe sustainable travel can be both eco-friendly and cost-effective. The 2025 report reveals strong year-over-year improvements in cost-positive sustainable practices, particularly in sustainable travel policies and carbon budgets. The scores for both categories have risen sharply, indicating that more companies are adopting measures that not only help the planet but also improve their bottom line. This shift is a clear sign that businesses are beginning to realise that sustainability is not just a moral imperative—it is also a sound financial decision.
Where Corporate Travel Sustainability Falls Short: The Urgent Need for Action
While there are areas of progress, the 2025 GBTA Sustainability Acceleration Challenge reveals stark gaps in several crucial aspects of sustainable business travel. One of the most glaring weaknesses is the use of tools that influence booking choices. Carbon fees, which would penalise high-carbon travel options, scored only 0.4, and online booking tools (OBTs) scored a mere 2.4. These tools are essential for enforcing sustainable travel policies, yet they have stagnated. Until these mechanisms are embedded into travel programs at scale, companies will continue to struggle to make meaningful progress in reducing their travel emissions.
Corporate Travel Giants Lagging Behind: The Struggle for Change
The largest travel programs, which account for the biggest chunk of corporate travel spend, are facing the greatest challenges in adopting sustainable practices. Despite their size and influence, these companies are struggling to implement even the most basic sustainability measures. The report indicates that large companies have regressed in key areas, particularly when it comes to supplier sustainability assessments and the integration of sustainability clauses in contracts. While small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have seen notable progress, the giants are faltering, underscoring the need for a collective, coordinated effort to tackle this global issue.
Aviation Sustainability: A Slowly Growing, But Underwhelming Solution
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) adoption is growing, with 15% of corporates purchasing SAF certificates in 2025, up from 12% in 2024. However, this is still a small proportion of the overall business travel emissions. SAF offers a promising solution to reduce carbon emissions from aviation, but adoption is still too low. Companies need to commit to investing more heavily in SAF, which can play a pivotal role in cutting down emissions from business travel. The lack of progress here demonstrates that the aviation industry, like the broader travel sector, still has a long way to go.
Acceleration Awards: A Ray of Hope in the Sustainable Business Travel Landscape
Despite the challenges, the GBTA Foundation’s inaugural Acceleration Awards highlight companies making significant strides in sustainable business travel. The awards recognise organisations that are leading the way in decarbonisation efforts, and serve as an inspiration for others to follow suit. In particular, BDO in the UK, Kearney in consulting, and IKEA in retail stand out as frontrunners in the sustainability race. These companies have not only achieved high scores in the challenge but are also setting the pace for others in terms of innovation, advocacy, and change-making in the travel industry.
The Path Ahead: Turning Insights Into Action for a Sustainable Future
The GBTA Foundation’s 2025 report also offers a clear path forward for companies seeking to accelerate their sustainability efforts. With the guidance of the GBTA Sustainable Business Travel Transition Pathway, companies can take actionable steps to move from awareness to implementation. The pathway provides essential tools and resources, such as best practices for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) adoption and upcoming training on sustainable procurement standards. With these resources, businesses can make real, measurable progress in reducing their carbon footprint and moving towards a greener, more sustainable future in business travel.
The Bottom Line: Sustainability in Corporate Travel Demands Urgency
The results of the 2025 GBTA Sustainability Acceleration Challenge show that while corporate commitment to sustainability in business travel is growing, actual progress remains slow, especially in high-impact areas. The business world must embrace the need for faster, collective action to tackle this critical issue. The sustainability efforts of the future will be measured not only by the commitments made today but by the speed with which businesses accelerate their actions. The challenge is clear: the time to act is now, and companies that delay are risking not just their environmental credentials but their future in a green economy.
