Carlson Wagonlit Travel is hailing its high ranking for corporate social responsibility efforts, saying the meetings and corporate travel organiser is now a leader in CSR.
EcoVadis, an environmental and business ethics auditor, has recognised Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s (CWT) responsible businesses practices with a 2016 silver rating and top marks in all EcoVadis Corporate Social Responsibility pillars.
CWT says the rating confirms its leadership position for the second year running among travel management companies, as well as more widely in the travel industry, including travel agencies, tour operators and reservation services.
Douglas Anderson, president and chief executive of CWT, said: “Being a responsible business is at the very heart of everything we do: it is in our DNA. When making business decisions, it is important that we consider not only our employees, our clients and travellers, but also the world we work in.
“Getting that right is fundamental to building a strong and sustainable business. That is why we put so much emphasis on our EcoVadis rating,” Anderson said.
EcoVadis provides independent rating of companies’ CSR activities in the four pillars of environment, labour practices, fair business practices and sustainable procurement. EcoVadis commended CWT’s performance across the board, and noted outstanding performance in two categories in particular: fair business practices and the environment.
David McClintock, EcoVadis’ marketing director, said: “Yet again, CWT has shown a strong performance and steady progress in their sustainability efforts. They are in the top 2 per cent for ethics and 3 per cent for environmental practices in their industry, which is outstanding.
“This should demonstrate to their clients they are pro-actively mitigating risks and are well positioned to seize new sustainable business opportunities. Over the past several years, CWT has consistently improved on the topics described in their EcoVadis scorecard improvement areas.
“If CWT continues to prioritise their improvement actions as they have thus far, they will almost certainly continue to increase their ratings in the future.”
Françoise Grumberg, CWT’s vice president for global responsible business, said: “We are really pleased with the progress we’ve made in CSR. We attribute our progress to the passion and commitment of our employees to do what’s right throughout the world, at all levels of the company.
“Our key accomplishments in the past year include reinforcement of our environmental reporting worldwide, continuous and systematic training on our ethics policy and implementation of a global responsible purchasing programme. We have a robust responsible business roadmap that will help us achieve our ambition.”
