Regional Awards: Sustainable Travel Award

Regional Award: Sustainable Travel Award: Commuting and Business travel - supported by Department for Transport, in association with National Business Travel Network – For employers who are developing a sustainable approach to commuting and business travel.

The closing date for this category has now passed.

Aim:
The aim of the Regional Sustainable Travel Award is to identify inspiring examples of innovation and action by organisations in the areas of commuting and business travel and through this to reward best practice and inspire others to take action.

Business in the Community aims to:

• Encourage businesses to be more strategic and focused on measurement and proving benefits from investment. 
• Provide a serious platform to move travel planning from the periphery to the heart of business practice by illustrating the wide ranging and business critical benefits of action in this area. 
• Generate inspiring examples and case studies of what organisations are doing in this area

Eligibility
Any private sector company with a presence in the UK is eligible to enter the award as well as any Business in the Community Member or National Business Travel Network member, or Mayday Network member.

Why Community and Business Travel is important:
37% of CO2 emissions from transport are from business travel, of which 24% relates to commuting and 13% business travel. Congestion on our roads can also be a real problem for business. Nearly a quarter of all car trips are made by people getting to and from work, with at least 85% of car trips for work being single occupancy.  Furthermore, physical inactivity costs an estimated £8.2bn a year in England, through direct costs of treating diseases linked to lack of exercise and the indirect costs of sickness absence.

Taking action to make commuting and business travel more sustainable will make an important contribution towards reducing carbon emissions and improving the health of employees. There are also real business benefits such as increased staff productivity, reduced sick absence and efficiency savings.

For more information see: NBTN, The Prince’s May Day network and Business Action on Health
Please also see the essential guide to travel planning: http://www.nbtn.org.uk/downloads/Essential%20Guide%20FINAL%20MAR%2008.pdf

What we hope to hear about from the award entries:
The award is looking for examples of excellence, innovation and impact in sustainable commuting and business travel by organizations. This might be:

• Initiatives aimed at reducing travel – for example: technology solutions, flexible and home-working policies;
• Switching to alternative travel modes – for example: cycling to work, encouraging train or bus travel;
• Encouraging safer and greener travel behaviours – for example: eco driving, car sharing, car clubs.

The award will be rewarding those that provide evidence around managing and reducing the negative impacts of commuting and business travel. The award entries will be asked to provide information on:

• Business approach, strategy and policies
• What action has been taken, examples of innovation and impact
• Measuring business benefits – in particular carbon emissions and employee wellbeing

What is the difference between a regional Award for Excellence and our national Awards for Excellence?

1. As a Regional Award for Excellence its function is to provide a means to select the best examples in a particular region. Therefore the companies that are successful in this category are considered to be one of the best examples in that region.
2. Regional Award category winners are not awarded a Big Tick. A Business in the Community’s Big Tick is only awarded to a company whose entry has competed in a national Award for Excellence category and has achieved a (national) standard set by the assessors that year that demonstrates significant impact across that category’s criteria that has been backed up with evidence of the impact they are having.

Process:
There will be a one stage judging process to pick the best in region. Successful entries will receive their Award certificate at one of our Awards for Excellence events happening across the UK throughout June.