Introduction - Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, the UN launched a call to action for all countries to unite around 17 shared Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at creating a better world by 2030. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals encompass a broad range of objectives, including eradicating poverty, promoting environmental sustainability, ensuring access to education and healthcare, and fostering peace and justice worldwide.  The SDGs address the global challenges we face including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace, and justice. At the half-way mark in 2023, only 15% of the 169 targets that make up the SDGs are on track – so renewed energy is needed. Individuals and organisations understand that more needs to be done. 

Our role in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals

Key Travel is an international travel management company exclusively dedicated to serving the travel needs of humanitarian, faith and academic organisations. While each not-for-profit has a different SDG focus, our 5,000 customers globally are collectively making a difference across all 17 SDGs. We take pride in enabling these organisations to maximise their contributions across the SDGs by reducing the cost and complexity of their travel while reducing its environmental impact.

How we reduce travel costs for our customers

Travel is one of the biggest operating costs for not-for-profits. Any money saved on travel means our customers can dedicate more of their resources to fulfilling their missions. At Key Travel, we save our customers time and money through our portfolio of specialist content, pioneered with our industry partners to provide exclusive benefits to the not-for-profit community. We were the first travel management company to launch specialist airfares for non-profits with our airline partners, saving our customers an average of over 15% on flight travel each year, in addition to providing more generous ticket conditions than the published tariff that reduce the cost of penalties when plans change. We continue to expand this portfolio of specialist airfares with airlines worldwide. We have also recently launched “Do Good rates” with one of the world’s largest accommodation providers, passing on an average 14% discount to our customers on hotel rates.

Our products are all supported by our own proprietary technology, which saves our customers time—both directly when booking travel, and indirectly in terms of travel-budget management and financial reconciliation. Our online booking tool was designed in consultation with 11 of our customer organisations, meaning its functionality is tailored precisely to the needs of our sector. Streamlining and simplifying travel management via our technology means that our customers can spend more time focusing on their work that makes an impact on the world.

The greater value we provide our customers, the greater impact they can have on the SDGs.

How we reduce the carbon impact of our customers’ travel

As a travel company, the SDG that we can most directly affect is Climate Action. We have developed a proprietary sustainable travel benchmarking tool (The Tread Lighter Index) which helps customers audit their travel decarbonisation activities against their peers and global best practice, highlighting the areas for improvement. We then assist our customers in sharpening the environmental focus of their travel policies through best practice sharing, such as avoiding short-haul air travel where rail is a realistic alternative and encouraging a choice of transport options with a lower carbon footprint.

We also help our customers to understand the carbon impact of their travel at a granular level through detailed carbon reporting, and assist with carbon budgeting/target setting, levies, and limits to incentivise the right booker behaviour. We enable travel bookers to make informed choices at the point of sale through the ability to sort results by the ’greenest’ travel options, based on carbon output. Our sustainability focus induces positive change because it permeates all levels, from individual traveller buying decisions to the organisation’s overarching travel policy.

Key Travel has also invested in new sustainability-focused product innovations. We recently collaborated with the leading provider of sustainability programs and data management for the hospitality sector to measure the carbon emissions of our customer hotel stays. We then partnered with our largest accommodation provider to launch Carbon Neutral Hotel Rooms, whereby the accommodation partner pays to offset the carbon impact of a hotel stay booked through Key Travel at no extra cost to customers. Since launch, we have sold more than 200,000 carbon neutral hotel nights.

How we make a difference from within our organisation

We have embedded the Sustainable Development Goals into our own policies and conduct annual ESG reviews to see where we can sharpen the impact of our strategies, processes, and operations. Our ESG rating has improved in the latest annual independently conducted survey from 57 to 67 (+10ppts) out of 100, and we are now rated Excellent in ESG, well ahead of sector benchmarks which are in the 21-40 range.

We achieved carbon neutrality as an organisation last year, 3 years ahead of our target date. We achieved this by revamping our environmental management systems, policies, and processes, eliminating avoidable carbon emissions, and offsetting the unavoidable ones.

In addition to helping others realise the SDGs, we also want to directly contribute through financial support, and employee fundraising and volunteer effort. Key Travel supports Village by Village, a charity whose mission is to reduce the needless suffering and deaths of children living in poverty in remote rural African villages. In recent years, Key Travel funded 9-10 employees each year to travel to Obom, a village 46km northwest of Accra, Ghana for volunteer work with Village by Village (VbV). Volunteer activities included helping to build a primary and a secondary school. Over the past 5 years, we have also provided over £40k in financial support from employee fundraising and company donations, which has continued since the pandemic took root.

We are also committed to supporting employees who wish to volunteer or fundraise with local charities to make their own, individual contribution toward the SDGs. Colleagues are encouraged to participate in one company-paid full day of volunteering per year in their local communities.

Conclusion

The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals are a blueprint for a better world. Progress in delivering them has been slow. We can all do more to make them come alive by 2030. Key Travel has acted by supporting its customers in achieving their SDG goals, integrating the SDGs into its core operations, investing in sustainable products and practices, and partnering with other organisations.

What actions can you take to play your part? There are many ways to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs. Here are a few ideas:

  • Educate yourself about the Sustainable Development Goals. The more you know about the SDGs, the better equipped you will be to act.
  • Make sustainable choices in your daily life. This could include things like reducing your consumption, recycling, and choosing sustainable products.
  • Ask the organisation you work for to clarify the measures they are taking to support the delivery of the SDGs
  • Support organisations that are working directly to achieve the SDGs. This could involve donating your time, money, or skills.
  • Hold your elected representatives accountable. Make sure they are taking action to achieve the SDGs.

Every micro-action moves the macro-needle. Let’s make a difference together.