ITM APPROVES ICARUS ACCREDITATION FOR SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL PROGRAMME TO FIRST SME
SAS UK & Ireland to join ICARUS Advisory Board as a Result
The Institute of Travel & Meetings (ITM) announced today that it has issued Bronze ICARUS accreditation status to its first SME buyer programme since the inception of the accreditation scheme in 2007. SAS UK & Ireland, the business analytics and software firm, was approved by the ITM ICARUS Advisory Board for demonstrating a robust measurement, targets and emissions reduction strategy. They join existing ICARUS accredited companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Accenture and Barclays.
Speaking on behalf of Project ICARUS, Paul Tilstone, Chief Executive of the project founders, ITM, praised the SAS UK & Ireland team for demonstrating that smaller businesses can address climate change too. He stated, "This company is effectively a model organisation for ICARUS accreditation. They built their strategy and targets for emission reduction across business travel by engaging with the ICARUS toolkit from the off. They may not have serious resources to throw at reducing emissions, like bigger companies often have, but they have shown that they are serious about changing behaviour and reducing emissions."
As a result of the submission, ITM has asked representatives of SAS UK & Ireland to join the advisory board as a representative of the SME market.
Petra Thurlow the Travel Centre Manager for SAS UK & Ireland, added, "Getting this accreditation is incredibly valuable to us as it demonstrates to both our internal stakeholders and our external suppliers that we are intent on driving down emissions. We are very proud to be the first SME to achieve the bronze accreditation as it aligns very well with SAS' corporate goals in being a modern, high tech, green, responsible business- committed to the environment now and in the future."
