UK businesses are being asked to cut the carbon footprint of workforce travel while the information they need to do it arrives after the room has already been booked, new research suggests.
Just one in four (24 per cent) UK business decision-makers can easily compare carbon data before booking workforce accommodation, according to workforce travel management platform Roomex. A further 33 per cent can see the information for only some of the available options, while 38 per cent receive it after the booking or not at all.
The findings, published in Roomex’s The Accommodation Visibility Gap report, point to a quietly absurd state of affairs: many firms are dutifully measuring accommodation emissions after employees have travelled, yet lack the data to reduce them at the moment it would actually make a difference.
For the trades, construction firms, engineers and field service businesses that keep mobile teams on the road, this is not a fringe concern. Workforce accommodation is essential or important to 71 per cent of organisations, enabling workers to reach sites, projects and customers.
Carbon rarely tops the checklist
The research is refreshingly honest about where carbon sits in the pecking order. Cost, location, availability or project urgency take priority over carbon impact in 85 per cent of organisations at least some of the time.
Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) say bookers need approval, or simply cannot select a lower-carbon option, if it costs more, is further from the worksite or both.
That will ring true for owner-managers already juggling tight margins. But the pressure to account for travel emissions is not going away. With tougher sustainability reporting rules approaching, larger customers are increasingly pushing carbon disclosure requirements down their supply chains, and smaller firms that cannot produce credible numbers risk losing out on contracts.
Keith Watson, president at Roomex, said: “Businesses are being asked to reduce the carbon impact of workforce travel without always having the information they need to do it. The research shows that carbon data is often missing, difficult to compare, or only available after accommodation has been booked. By that point, the decision has already been made.
“Businesses need clear, comparable carbon information while they are weighing up cost, location and availability. That allows them to choose a lower-carbon option where it works for the job.”
Measured after, decided before
The report calls on businesses to connect accommodation search, booking, approval and reporting data, so that carbon can be considered before a room is booked rather than only totted up afterwards.
The problem echoes a wider pattern. Research has repeatedly shown that most UK SMEs do not know their business carbon emissions, and the travel sector has only recently begun producing more accurate carbon calculations for journeysthat let firms compare options with confidence.
Hotel stays count as Scope 3 emissions under greenhouse gas accounting, and the government publishes official conversion factors for company reporting that include a figure per room per night. But averages after the fact are no substitute for comparable numbers at the point of booking.
Roomex helps businesses centralise workforce accommodation booking, improve cost control and bring reporting into one place. Through its partnership with SQUAKE, it also supports CO2e estimates for accommodation, allowing organisations to view carbon impact alongside the practical information used to manage stays.
For SME owners, the takeaway is simple enough. Nobody expects carbon to trump cost on every job. But if the data only turns up once the invoice does, greener choices were never really on the table.
