Our communications officer, Rachel McFarlane, reports on our campaigning activities over the past month.
Travel Smart: Fly less while achieving more.
On Tuesday 10 May, Transform Scotland joined Transport & Environment (T&E) Europe’s leading campaign group for clean mobility, to launch the ‘Travel Smart’ campaign.
During the coronavirus pandemic we realised that business travel is often unnecessary, and that meeting remotely can be as, if not more, effective in making decisions and creating an inclusive working environment. Therefore, organisations no longer have so many excuses to continue to fly.
The Travel Smart campaign asks companies to:
1. Commit publicly to an absolute target of at least 50% reduction in flying from 2019 levels, by 2025 or sooner;
2. Implement reductions in flying and choose other modes of connectivity and transport;
3. Report on progress towards decreased emissions.
Transform Scotland policy officer Marie Ferdelman noted on this campaign:
“The pandemic proved that businesses can be as effective and even more efficient by flying less, and some companies, notably Bank of Scotland, are showing that reducing emissions from business flying is entirely possible.
“Cutting down on business travel makes financial sense for companies. Scots are crying out to reduce our dependence on oil, and smarter travelling is an easy way to do so.”
Over the coming months, the Travel Smart campaign will continue to monitor the 230 businesses it has ranked here, looking to see a change from those with a ‘b’ or ‘c’ rating. Securing behaviour change from corporations who have a culture of flying is vital if we are to reduce our carbon emissions.
Funds raised for new report into Scottish road-building plans
Last year, we published the ‘Roads to Ruin’ report, which highlighted the scale of the Scottish Government’s multi-billion road-building, which continues in the face of the Climate Emergency and despite its 20% traffic reduction target.
We need to provide further scrutiny of Scottish roads plans. So we were very pleased to be selected for The Big Give’s Green Match Fund for our Roads to Ruin campaign this year which ran from the 22-29 April.
This fund proved a fantastic opportunity, helping us reach a total of almost £7,000!
Thank you to all who donated and supported us during this campaign – and look out for our new report later this year.
