The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) will partner with Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VCD: a major transport and environmental organization in Germany) on a survey as part of its Green Business Travel project. The results of the survey, which will be announced in the latter half of 2008, will be used to create guidelines for environmentally friendly business travel processes and alternatives to business travel.

The survey will be given to select small and medium-sized companies to identify the lack of information and optimization potentials for implementing a green business travel initiative. In addition to ACTE, the Green Business Travel project is supported by the German Federal Environment Agency and the Federal Ministry for the Environment.

"As a global business travel association that has continually championed green travel initiatives, ACTE is pleased to support this important project in conjunction with VCD," Susan Gurley, ACTE Global Executive Director, said. "As the first industry association to develop tools and programs to reduce carbon emissions, ACTE is well-qualified to advise its member-partners, and help them achieve the greatest success in all their environmental programs."

"The negative environmental impacts of business travel are often underestimated," Anja Hanel, VCD Project Director "Green Business Travel," noted. "If we want to change our ways of travel, we have to show that environment and business objectives often can match. With best practices and information, the project will help to realize change in travel behavior."

The Green Business Travel project will provide companies, and the public sector, with a toolkit on the ecological aspects of planning and taking business trips. Checklists and a cost calculator will identify those areas in which travel practices can be made more environmentally friendly, as well as enable them to estimate expenses. In addition, a variety of alternatives will be suggested such as avoidance, shifting transport, ecological optimization and compensation.

The toolkit also will contain practical green measures that can be taken by a company in the areas of organization and administration, fleet management, choosing means of transportation and accommodation.

Companies will also be given the opportunity to submit their already implemented and successful environmentally friendly practices, which will be entered into a contest.