The Green List

Alō Index

Type of company: Technology provider
Year established: 2022
Headquartered: New York City
Main markets served: North America
Key personnel: Anna Feinberg, CEO and co-founder; Leanne Turner, chief operating officer and co-founder; Richard Mands, head of engineering
Business model/services: Works with hotels to help them promote their sustainability attributes and developments to corporate travel buyers by producing an overall ESG (environmental, social and governance) score.
How it works: The platform evaluates data from individual hotels covering different elements of ESG, including sustainability, to create simple comparative scores, which can be presented to corporate buyers and travellers at the point of booking. This ESG analysis covers more than 100 standardised data points for each property. It can also be constantly updated throughout the year to make the RFP (request for proposal) process more streamlined for both hotels and buyers. Corporates can customise sustainability priorities and goals, budget price to an ESG value, and increase compliance through the integration of Alō Index within booking tools.

BeCause

Type of company: Technology provider
Year established: 2021
Headquartered: Copenhagen, Denmark
Main markets served: Global, with its main focus on Europe, North America and Australia/New Zealand
Key personnel: Frederik Steensgaard, CEO and co-founder; Jonas Bruun Jacobsen, chief technology officer and co-founder; Kristian Bruun, head of marketing
Business model/services: Provides solutions to help hotels, airlines and online travel agencies manage their sustainability data.
How it works: BeCause’s platform is designed to make it easier, quicker and cheaper to share sustainability data between travel companies by removing the need for manual processing. Hotels can automate the collection, analysis and communication of their sustainability achievements and progress through a centralised hub, making it easier to qualify for sustainability certifications. BeCause works with a wide range of certification bodies and travel companies including Booking.com, British Airways and easyJet. The BeCause hub currently allows more than 55,000 hotels to stream certification/eco-label data to online booking platforms globally. It has also teamed up with hospitality industry tech provider d2o to create a Corporate Social Responsibility Directive (CSRD) solution for hotels.

Chooose

Type of company: Technology provider
Year established: 2017
Headquartered: Oslo, Norway
Main markets served: Europe, with plans to expand its geographical footprint
Key personnel: Andreas Slettvoll, founder and board director; Joseph Beaudin, CEO
Business model/services: Provides climate software solutions for airlines, corporates and SMEs, including the option to purchase alternative aviation fuels.
How it works: Chooose has developed software to help organisations manage their increasingly complex decarbonisation programmes, including the ability for both corporates and travellers to buy alternative aviation fuel, carbon removals and verified offsets. It also offers an increasingly “deep focus” on providing calculation methodologies and other climate solutions. Chooose works with many airlines, such as British Airways, Finnair and Iberia, as well as American Express Global Business Travel, Booking.com and SAP Concur to provide detailed emissions data and options to help reduce the carbon footprint of travel.
Climate accreditations: Normec Verifavia – SAF verification platform; DNV – greenhouse gas calculations methodology

Clarasight

Type of company: Technology provider
Year established: 2021 (previously known as Climate Club)
Headquartered: New York
Main markets served: Global
Key personnel: Adam Braun, co-founder and CEO; Philip Charm, co-founder and chief business officer
Business model/services: Provides corporates with automated sustainability insights and forward-looking emissions planning through data collection, analysis and forecasting.
How it works: Clarasight’s Carbon Planning and Intelligence platform streamlines reporting, forecasting, planning and carbon budgeting, while providing real-time data visibility to help corporates make decisions on their travel programmes. It integrates with clients’ existing TMC tech, online booking tools, expense management and HR platforms to automate reporting and identify carbon reduction opportunities. The portal also highlights travel policy changes that can reduce carbon emissions, alongside strategies to cut overall travel spending, including a best practices library. Clarasight recently integrated with SAP Concur’s marketplace to allow travel data to automatically flow into the Clarasight platform.

Coco+

Type of company: Travel management company
Year established: 2022
Headquartered: Bristol, UK
Main markets served: UK
Key personnel: Neil Fincham-Dukes, CEO and co-founder; Phil Brown, chief operating officer; co‐founder; James Dent, sustainability director
Business model/services: The TMC’s commercial model involves incorporating the cost of offsetting trip-related carbon emissions within its transaction fee.
How it works: The Coco+ travel platform allows clients to book all business travel within a single platform at the same time as offseting their travel-related emissions at no additional cost. It provides CO2e emissions data, cost and travel time filters at checkout on its booking platform, as well as offering sustainable travel policy integration and carbon budgeting. The platform prioritises the most sustainable travel options and emissions are offset for the entire trip through validated third-party carbon removal projects. Clients can also offset their emissions from road mileage through the Coco+ Fuel platform.
Climate accreditations: B Corp

Eco.mio

Type of company: Technology provider
Year established: 2021
Headquartered: Berlin
Main markets served: Germany, with plans for international expansion
Key personnel: Katharina Riederer, co-founder and CEO; Sarah Benarey, co-founder; Mario Blatter, co-founder and chief technology officer
Business model/services: Encourages travellers to book more sustainable business travel through its gamification platform.
How it works: The plug-in solution integrates with existing online booking tools, such as Amadeus’ Cytric, SAP Concur and Egencia. It displays CO2 savings, highlights sustainable booking options and motivates travellers by offering peer comparisons and competitions designed to drive down emissions from business travel. These incentives are tailored for individual clients and can include customised “nudges”, as well as offering points and rewards for travellers booking more sustainable trips. The platform’s carbon emissions data is provided by Advito, the consulting arm of BCD Travel, using its Gate4 methodology.

Goodwings

Type of company: Technology provider
Year established: 2015
Headquartered: Copenhagen, Denmark
Main markets served: Global, with a presence in 500 locations in 39 countries
Key personnel: Christian Møller-Holst, CEO and founder; Jacob Erri, chief financial officer; Jeppe Jeppesen, chief sales officer
Business model/services: Goodwings uses its booking revenue to counteract clients’ business travel emissions by investing in alternative aviation fuels and carbon offsets.
How it works: The platform offers detailed data, insights and tools to help clients improve their sustainability performance. This includes a centralised dashboard for all emissions data, the ability to add biofuels to trips and create lower emissions itineraries for all travellers. Clients can also share emissions reports across their teams to “boost accountability and fast-track reduction targets”. Goodwings’ AI Travel Companion helps to cut emissions on the ground elements of business trips, including “last mile” transport between airports and hotels by encouraging the use of public transport or electric taxis. Goodwings has been rolling out Spotnana’s booking technology to customers, while JTB Business Travel provides offline service.
Climate accreditations: B Corp

Greengage

Type of company: Sustainability certification provider
Year established: 2020
Headquartered: London, UK
Main markets served: Mainly the UK with a presence in continental Europe and North America
Key personnel: Andrew Perolls, CEO; Louise Boyse, commercial director; Mark Bevan, chief operating officer
Business model/services: Greengage’s ECOsmart platform is a certification system for hotels, meeting venues, short stay apartments and pubs with meeting rooms designed to illustrate their sustainability credentials.
How it works: ECOsmart has been developed to validate hospitality operators’ commitment to operating sustainably with around 500 organisations achieving this certification so far. Greengage works with hotels and venues to identify a range of initiatives that can reduce their carbon footprints and make other effective sustainable changes to operations. Properties with ECOsmart status are promoted through Greengage’s Green Venues directory, while a CO2 toolkit provides practical tools to measure, monitor and reduce carbon. The company also offers consultancy services to corporates and public sector organisations on becoming more sustainable.
Climate accreditations: B Corp

Thrust Carbon

Type of company: Technology provider
Year established: 2019
Headquartered: London, UK
Main markets served: Global
Key personnel: Founders Mark Corbett and Kit Aspen; Sarah Whiting, channel solutions lead
Business model/services: Thrust Carbon’s intelligence platform provides extensive CO2 emissions reporting for business travel and corporate events, through a range of tools, data and professional services.
How it works: The platform is designed to report, reduce and remove emissions covering a wide range of travel services, including air, hotel, rail and car rental. Detailed data also accounts for the location of emissions, vehicle types and even the carbon footprint of meals served to business travellers onboard flights. Thrust Carbon’s services include automated reporting, impact reports and integrated offsets from “high quality” projects to help corporates move towards becoming carbon neutral. Other recent developments include integrating its emissions data into the updated version of the Concur Travel online booking platform.
Climate accreditations: ISO 14083 – new standard for reporting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport and travel; SBTi Net Zero

Travel Horst

Type of company: Sustainable business travel consultancy
Year established: 2016
Headquartered: Mexico City, Mexico
Main markets served: Europe, US, Canada and Mexico, plus global reach through virtual training platform
Key personnel: Founder Horst Bayer, a former travel buyer at Siemens USA and Hitachi Data Systems in EMEA
Business model/services: Independent consultancy helping businesses to establish sustainable travel management strategies; also offers an online training programme and assists start-up firms specialising in sustainable travel.
How it works: Tailored consultancy services range from helping to implement carbon reduction initiatives to larger scale sustainability projects. TravelHorst’s online training programme features 15 self-learning courses with practical steps that organisations can take to make their travel more sustainable. The consultancy also uses its “extensive network and expertise” to help start-up tech companies in North and Latin America to launch sustainable business travel services in these markets.

Trees4Travel

Type of company: Technology provider
Year established: 2020
Headquartered: London
Main markets served: Europe
Key personnel: Nico Nicholas, co-founder and CEO; Elkie Nicholas, co-founder; Dana Moore, director of operations for climate solutions
Business model/services: Primarily known for its tree planting initiatives, Trees4travel also offers CO2 reporting tools and calculations, as well as providing direct integrations into corporate booking systems.
How it works: Trees4travel gives corporates the opportunity to offset their travel-related emissions through tree-planting and reforestation projects – it reached the one million tree milestone in late 2023. Tree planting is also supplemented by providing certified carbon credits for investments into renewable energy projects. Other initiatives for corporates include the Trees4Events carbon tool for meeting planners and the ZEERO “micro investment” vehicle, which corporates and travel firms can invest in to fund climate projects.
Climate accreditations: ISO 14001 – environmental management standard; United Nations certified emissions reduction (CER)

TripKicks

Type of company: Technology provider
Year established: 2018
Headquartered: New York City
Main markets served: Global
Key personnel: Jeff Berk, CEO; Colleen Black, vice president of business development; Brian VanArsdale, head of product and CTO
Business model/services: TripKicks is an add-on technology providing messaging to business travellers at the point of sale and during trips – this includes encouraging them to choose more sustainable travel options.
How it works: TripKicks’ platform can be integrated into existing corporate travel tech platforms, allowing organisations to communicate and engage with their travellers during the booking process and on their journeys through corporate booking tools, as well as mobile apps, email and SMS texts. For sustainability, TripKicks has partnered with Advito to provide detailed carbon reporting within online booking tools. This provides emissions data for flights, rail and hotels, with a green leaf icon used to highlight the most sustainable travel option for a trip.