The updated global travel and meeting instruction underlines the importance of always considering environmental factors as well as costs when planning a business trip. The bank’s staff will continue to travel, not least in order to meet customers. However, in many cases a telephone, video or web-based conference may be appropriate and thereby save both time and costs.
All SEB employees must consider the environmental impact when planning a trip. The starting point is to always choose the most environmentally friendly alternative when travelling.
The previous policy, introduced in August 2008, included a recommendation to choose train when possible. The updated policy puts further emphasis on this and underlines that train must be the first choice for travel between Stockholm and Gothenburg as well as between Frankfurt and Munich.
“The Stockholm-Gothenburg route is one of the most frequently travelled in SEB and last year alone we flew 2,000 one-way flights on it. If we cut this number by half, we could reduce our carbon emissions by more than 105 tons,” says Sven Anders Stegare, head of procurement at SEB.
SEB’s employees, particularly at Merchant Banking increasingly use videoconferencing for internal meetings. Other technologies that are on the rise include web meetings and webinars for both meetings and educational efforts.
“In addition to environmental advantages these options also save time for the people involved and costs for the bank,” says Pia Hedberg, who is responsible for travel procurement.