Environment Support

Travelport

Travelport is a travel information and reservation company that owns Worldspan and Galileo global distributions systems. Travelport also owns Gulliver's Travel Associates (GTA), which is a leading provider of international travel content. It is also a major shareholder of Orbitz Worldwide. Its current roster of senior officers is composed of the following:

Almost all forms of travel today use a significant amount of energy, most of which come from non-renewable, non-green and carbon-heavy fossil fuels. The travel industry also involves lodging, and hotels are not the best examples of "green" structures. With a multitude of lights-most of which are not energy efficient--centralized air-conditioning and kitchens running 24 hours a day, hotels can be the greediest of structures in terms of relative energy waste. The travel industry as a whole is "a major contributor to global warming," says Jeff Clarke, Travelport's CEO.

These difficulties usually place travel companies --- Travelport included --- in a bad light where the environment is concerned, particularly those that deal with international travel. However, while international travel does contribute largely to several environmental issues (greenhouse gas emissions, the use of non-renewable energy and energy efficiency are the most common), Travelport is able to offset these undesirable effects through initiatives that reduce their carbon emissions and energy consumption.

In a virtual press conference in 2007, Jeff Clarke unveiled a strategy to make the company and its subsidiaries become more energy efficient and atmosphere-friendly. The first of these initiatives was co-sponsoring (together with Sustainable Travel International (STI) and MyClimate) the World Travel and Tourism Council's program to offset the carbon emissions generated by the organization's members who attended their conference. Travelport also took care of measuring the carbon footprints of its members to give the company a better idea of how much carbon emissions can be generated by travel.

Additionally, Travelport recognized the necessity of keeping a close watch on the impacts of its operations on the environment. While modern air travel is still powered by carbon-emitting fossil fuels, Travelport has taken steps to manage its carbon emissions. Travelport has been continually gathering data to help them track their carbon footprint, which allows Travelport to make decisions on what action plans should be implemented to manage these statistics. Travelport aims to tap their global distribution system Galileo to assist in this endeavor. Galileo handles 800,000 air transactions daily which accelerates the gathering and measurement of Travelport's emission data. Galileo is also currently developing a system for its customers (i.e. suppliers and travel agents) that can accurately track emission data and make it easier to interpret.

"Among the formidable challenges facing governments, businesses, and consumers today is how to accurately gather data and business intelligence on our environmental impact - particularly carbon footprints - at a time when climate change is a critical global issue," Jeff Clarke, President and CEO of Travelport, says in a press release. "The industry cannot advance environmentally sustainable travel without a detailed understanding of its current impact on the environment. As an industry, we are committed to environmentally sustainable Travel & Tourism and we need to create greater awareness by leveraging reports such as this to communicate the importance of tourism to economic development, cultural understanding, and peace among nations."

One of Travelport's companies, Orbitz, has also partnered with Carbonfund.org. This partnership aims to offset the carbon emissions generated by travelers through reforestation programs and development of renewable energy. In addition, Travelport and the companies under its name have nearly migrated all of their processes and transactions into paperless systems. Travelport has also initiated volunteer programs for its employees to engage in environmental causes that the company supports.

Travelport Environment Resources

View the Media Room for Travelport.

Article about how Jeff Clarke cues up Worldspan.

Travelport appoints Gordon Wilson as CEO and president of the combined Galileo/Worldspan organization, reporting to Jeff Clarke, CEO and president, Travelport.

Plan a trip with Travelport using ViewTrip.

The Transnational Issue profiles Jeff Clarke and top news about and the travel industry.