GBTA Launches Sustainable Procurement Standards

The Global Business Travel Association Foundation has developed a set of standardized questions and considerations for buyers to assess aviation suppliers, with other categories under development for later this year and beyond, the organization announced.

The GBTA Sustainable Procurement Standards is an education guide, which the organization is offering as a free resource, that includes a description of topics travel buyers should take into consideration for assessing sustainability performance in specific verticals and relevant questions to ask suppliers. The foundation and the GBTA Sustainability Committee worked with more than 50 companies in business travel, nonprofits and industry associations over about 18 months to develop the standards, the organization said.

The standards also follow the Biden administration's formal commitment to push sustainable travel practices, announced in December.

"One of the most daunting tasks in our sustainable business travel journey was integrating sustainability into the [request for proposal or information] process," Salesforce senior manager for travel and sustainability Jenny Sabineu, a member of the Sustainability Committee, said in a statement. "We quickly realized that there wasn't one consistent path, numerous certifications and varied guidance on how to apply the results into our program."

The standards also help suppliers be better prepared to respond to sustainability-related questions in procurement requests, according to GBTA.

With the aviation sector criteria launched, GBTA next will release standards for both accommodations and ground transportation later this year. Meetings and events standards will begin in 2025, and other verticals are scheduled for development next year as well, GBTA said.

GBTA is making the standards available on the GBTA Foundation website and the GBTA Hub.