Right on track

Clinical research organisation Parexel has significantly reduced the environmental impact of its travel activity in Germany by implementing an incentive for its business travellers to switch from planes to trains.

Modal shift is a useful lever on which many companies pull as they chase emissions reduction targets. Parexel accelerated the switch by allowing travellers to book first class rail travel for trips within Germany, the company’s executive director of travel and sustainability, Ben Park, explained at this summer's GBTA Convention in Atlanta.

“We are promoting first class, high-speed rail over flights for trips of less than four-and-a-half-hours in duration,” said Park. “We didn’t take flights away from the online booking tool, we just told travellers that they’re free to choose first class if they travel by train.

“Travellers still have the choice. We didn’t say they shouldn’t fly anymore and we tested this for a while,” said Park, noting that economy air travel was still permissible.

“We didn’t take the stick approach, we just gave them an easy path to choose the train. One interesting result was that the people who switched to rail said they were much more productive and arrived feeling less stressed.”

Following a pilot of the policy that was launched in Q1 of 2023 – and had been inspired by Deutsche Bahn’s Climate Mobility Challenge – it is now a permanent feature of the company’s travel programme in Germany and has seen rail’s share of domestic trips at Parexel increase from 65 per cent to 96 per cent of trips.

Although first class rail travel is typically more expensive than flights – “which is wrong,” said Park – the productivity gains for travellers able to work onboard mean rail travel delivers a greater return on investment for the company, explained Park. The company is now considering offering a similar incentive to its travellers in France, Spain and Italy.

The concept was hailed a “resounding success” in Parexel’s 2023 Environmental, Social and Governance report published in July, and was achieved in spite of challenges from industrial action across Germany's rail network and the impact of adverse weather. More than two million passenger kilometres were travelled using local and long-distance trains by Parexel employees in 2023.

In Germany, the total number of domestic flights taken was 111 in 2023, with six employees accounting for more than half of them. Of those 111 flights, 35 exceeded the 4.5-hour threshold for rail, leaving a net 76 flights that could have been made by train.

“Only four per cent of trips [in Germany] are now flights and if you look at those trips it’s people that are flying on a route that would be a seven-hour train ride,” said Park.

The policy has helped the company reduce its emissions from air travel in Germany by 30 per cent year-on-year, and contributed to a reduction in global CO2 emissions from air travel in 2023 of 34 per cent from a 2019 baseline, according to the report.

In addition, it noted the company has reduced the average emissions from its company car fleet by 15 per cent, from 123g/km in 2019 to 104g/km in 2023. Since January 2023, all new car orders have been for electric or non-plug-in hybrid vehicles and the company expects its whole fleet – which currently numbers around 800 cars – to be entirely comprised of such vehicles by 2026.

Meanwhile, Parexel car rentals in Germany were reduced to 53 last year – down around 30 per cent from 2019 – and electric vehicles are encouraged wherever possible. In fact, Park noted that employees renting EVs are not required to return them fully charged – one of the key blockers of EV car adoption.

“Parexel is among a host of companies to have heralded the success of modal shift campaigns as part of emissions reduction strategies”

Looking ahead, Parexel’s 2025 year-end goals are to reduce CO2 emissions from air travel by 20 per cent from its 2019 baseline and average fleet emissions by 50 per cent.

The company will report its emissions to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) for the tenth consecutive year this summer (it was awarded a C grade in 2023) and it has recently submitted science-based emission reduction targets for validation by SBTi as it aims for net zero by no later than 2050. Parexel was awarded an EcoVadis Silver rating in 2023.

Parexel is among a host of companies to have heralded the success of modal shift campaigns as part of emissions reduction strategies.

Since the pandemic, Salesforce has made concerted efforts to move travellers from planes to trains, identifying ten high-volume routes, mainly in Europe and the Northeast US, where it has been able to negotiate preferred rates. Most recently, it rolled out a ‘rail first’ policy requiring employees in 35 global markets to shift from short haul flights of less than 300 miles to rail. Like Parexel, Salesforce is also permitting first class rail travel as an incentive to make the switch.

AstraZenca has enjoyed success in this area too, seeing rail’s market share on eligible routes (those deemed an acceptable alternative to flying) increase from 31 per cent in 2019 to 65 per cent in 2023, generating significant CO2 savings. On some of its top European routes, including Barcelona to Madrid and Rome to Milan, more than 90 per cent of trips are now made by train.

UK-based engineering and management consultancy Mott MacDonald, meanwhile, has identified carbon-efficient rail options across nearly 20 domestic routes. The policy change requires travellers to book rail on these routes, unless they have specific approval to book air. Since the policy was introduced, carbon emissions on the identified routes have dropped by 50 per cent.

And last year, EY reported on the success of its self-built Sustainable Travel Approval Tool (STAT) which nudges employees towards lower emissions travel options. By last autumn, rail travel accounted for 22 per cent of all EY travel bookings globally, up from 10 per cent in 2019. For one participating firm where there is an extensive rail network, EY’s rail bookings leapt from 20 per cent to 63 per cent of trips.