Amex GBT Launches Data-Driven Sustainability Tool

In a major move towards sustainable business travel, American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) has introduced a new sustainability recommendations feature on its Egencia platform. The cutting-edge tool offers real-time, data-driven insights that enable travel managers to make more sustainable choices while maintaining financial performance in line. The feature is aimed at solving a critical dilemma for most companies—how to lower their carbon emissions from travel without sacrificing business goals.

Created from corporate travel manager feedback, the tool integrates customized emissions reduction recommendations with effortless implementation capabilities, connecting recommendations directly to travel policy settings. This allows for quick, self-service uptake by travel managers, bypassing the complexity that too often stalls sustainable efforts.

John Sturino, Amex GBT Senior Vice President of Product and Engineering, highlighted the importance of individualized decision-making in corporate sustainability initiatives. "We know companies are worried about how to manage all of their travel impacts," he said. "Our addition of personalized recommendations will provide travel managers with more control over the environmental footprint of their travel program and enable them to make data-driven decisions that can lead to making progress toward reaching their company's sustainability objectives."

The essence of the new feature is that it is capable of delivering personalized, actionable recommendations based on real travel habits. Through data analysis of company travel, the dashboard pinpoints ways to curb carbon footprints in a quantitative and tangible sense. These consist of options such as replacing flying with train usage where possible, opting for carbon-efficient flights, and opting for cabin classes of lower emissions as a function of the distance involved.

In addition, the platform merges information on Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) through collaboration with the Avelia platform. This allows users to visualize the lifecycle emissions reduction advantage of SAF, providing travel managers with a more detailed understanding of the sustainable choice available to them. With such specificity, the tool doesn't just recommend changes—it provides companies with the information necessary to make better decisions that align with their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) priorities.

The just-launched dashboard is included in Egencia's analytics studio and is a one-stop shop for analysis and policy enforcement. This integration makes sure sustainability suggestions are not only observable but also actionable. Travel managers can directly act upon suggestions within their firm's travel policy framework immediately, minimizing the gap between insight and action.

Nora Lovell Marchant, Vice President of Global Sustainability at Amex GBT, highlighted how the tool supports long-term environmental goals without disrupting business operations. “By providing tailored, data-driven policy recommendations, we’re helping travel managers bridge the gap between where they are today on their sustainability journey and what they want to achieve tomorrow,” she said. “We put sustainability solutions front and center.”

The new dashboard extends Amex GBT's past sustainability initiatives, such as the rollout of an emissions-based carbon pricing program. That previous effort values emissions and uses them to pay for sustainable travel initiatives and is part of the company's larger plan to incorporate sustainability into business travel programs more fundamentally.

Amex GBT's sustained emphasis on ecologically sensitive travel solutions comes on the heels of increasing global business demand for decreased carbon intensity. As climatic issues scale corporate agendas, this kind of tool not only empowers, but also places sustainability on an equivalent footing to business metrics so companies can attain ecological as well as economic objectives.

Through a combination of technology, customization, and real-world application, Amex GBT's new Egencia feature is poised to revolutionize the way organizations engage with sustainable travel. It marks a new era in which carbon-smart choices are natively infused into the DNA of business, allowing companies to drive growth while saving the planet.