TravelPerk has acquired travel sustainability consultancy Susterra for an undisclosed sum.
U.K.-based Susterra, which was founded by environmental scientist James Dent, offers companies a holisitc view of an employee's business-travel related environmental impact.
Using data analytics, the company provides reports with insight to help companies improve carbon efficiency, reduce cost and meet sustainability targets.
TravelPerk describes the acquisition as the “latest step in its mission to help businesses travel sustainably.”
Dent, who joins TravelPerk as part of the deal, says: “The path to more sustainable business practices starts with visibility and this philosophy forms the basis of Susterra’s offering. Susterra uses the industry-standard ICAO Methodology, ensuring customers can be confident in the accuracy and impact of the platform.”
In early 2020, TravelPerk unveiled its GreenPerk initiative enabling companies to see carbon impact data on their travel decisions and enabling them to offset travel for a cost.
The company says the acquisition builds on this and the plan is to integrate the Susterra platform into the TravelPerk platform in the coming months.
Ross McNairn, chief product officer of TravelPerk, says: “The meetings that matter will always happen in person so companies will always need their employees to travel in order to meet customers, prospects and teams face to face. That said there is massive demand from our clients to enable these meetings with the lowest possible impact on the environment.
"It's for this reason that we are investing heavily in helping our clients get a true representation of their footprint so that they can consciously take mitigating action both through TravelPerk and their own programs. Sustainability is a long game and we want to be leaders in this transition.”
Dent adds: “Increasingly, businesses do want to take the right steps to reduce their carbon footprint, but they are unsure of what actions they can take to make a positive impact.
"Business travel is of course a significant part of this, so I created Susterra to help employers make the right decisions with confidence.”
The acquisition is TravelPerk's third in recent months following its acquisitions of U.S.-based NexTravel in January and U.K.-based Click Travel in July.
It's not the only travel management platform to be upping its sustainability credentials with rival TripActions announcing a partnership with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) provider Neste, earlier this week.
Through the partnership TripActions and Reed & Mackay will offer customers the option to purchase SAF and reduce their carbon footprint.
Meanwhile, ATPI has unveiled Halo which it describes as a sustainability-focused "incubator of new ideas and services."
The travel management company is also creating a sustainability team as part of its plan to become carbon neutral.