BCD Travel has earned a gold ranking in an independent assessment measuring its corporate social responsibility performance — the only travel management company to achieve the top rating.
Based on 21 distinct CSR criteria in four categories, the ranking places BCD Travel in the top 1% of all supppliers assessed in its industry category and the top 2% of all suppliers assessed by EcoVadis, the world’s leading platform for CSR ratings for global supply chains. In achieving its gold CSR ranking, BCD Travel improved upon its silver rankings of the last two years.
“We’re proud of our achievement in earning top recognition by EcoVadis because it confirms not only our commitment to CSR but also to our continued improvement in this area,” said Kathy Jackson, BCD Travel’s executive vice president of global account management and executive chair of corporate social responsibility.
EcoVadis conducts rigorous analyses of CSR programs in the areas of environment, labor practices, fair business practices and sustainable procurement. More than 20,000 companies have been assessed by EcoVadis, whose methodology is built on international CSR standards—including the Global Reporting Initiative, the United Nations Global Compact and ISO 26000.
“Companies prefer doing business with other companies that share their values, and great people like to join companies that have a clear vision and commitment to corporate social responsibility,” Jackson said.
More than 120 leading multinationals worldwide, including Verizon, Nestlé, Johnson & Johnson, Heineken, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Nokia, L’Oréal, Bayer, Alcatel-Lucent, ING Bank, Air France-KLM, Centrica/British Gas, BASF, and Merck use EcoVadis to monitor the CSR performance of their supply chains.
“It means a lot to Nestlé to work with partners that also fully embrace our values and principles,” said Marc Zuber, Group Procurement Manager and Travel & Event Planning at Nestlé. “This is a very important milestone and illustrates how committed BCD travel is regarding Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability.”
BCD’s initiative to establish ongoing CSR practices at the gold-standard level is one part of its commitment to “doing good with everything we do.”
In May, the GBTA Foundation’s Project ICARUS recognized BCD Travel as recipient of the 2016 Sustainability Outstanding Achievement Award in the Travel Intermediary category. Underscoring initiatives in virtual collaboration, travel risk management and fraud mitigation, the recognition marked the second time in three years that BCD Travel won ICARUS recognition for its sustainability efforts. BCD Travel also is partnering with GBTA in building a new self -assessment tool that will allow corporate travel buyers to benchmark the maturity level of their company’s sustainability program.
