American Express focuses on CSR practices

WORLD – A corporate travel organiser has pledged to redouble its efforts to conduct business ethically. A new report from American Express Global Business Travel outlines the company’s commitment to responsible, sustainable and ethical processes and practices in five key areas of focus: governance and ethics, employees, customers, community and environment. “In 2014 American Express Global Business Travel became a standalone company, focused exclusively on corporate travel and related services and backed by 100 years of experience in the industry,” said Bill Glenn, president and chief executive officer, American Express Global Business Travel. “This is the perfect time for us to take a more dedicated and focused approach to our global CSR activities. We are committed to integrating our CSR priorities into our newly evolving business objectives, and expanding upon our efforts over the coming months and years”. Highlights from GBT’sCSR activities in 2014 are: ·       Governance and Ethics – a review of policies, procedures and guidelines relating to ethical and lawful business practices. 99.9% of GBT’s 12,000 employees globally completed training to understand and comply with GBT’s high standards. ·       Employees – an expansion of GBT’s Code of Conduct training for all employees globally, to include a separate and specific module focused on anti-discrimination, as part of GBT’s commitment to providing a safe, inclusive and diverse working environment. ·       Products and solutions – enhancements to GBT products aimed at helping our customers to make their own travel programmes more environmentally friendly, and assisting their duty of care obligations to their traveling employees.  An example of this was the launch of Card Swipe functionality for GBT’s traveller care solution, EXPERT CARE. This allows travel managers to view a traveller’s itinerary information and recent American Express® Corporate Card transactions to help pinpoint their location during an emergency situation. ·       Community engagement – a meaningful investment in the local communities in which GBT operates, demonstrated through donations and thousands of volunteer hours by GBT employees. For example, in 2014 GBT employees across the US, Canada and India donated more than $500,000 to causes they care most about. ·       Environment – the widespread adoption of energy efficient building and IT equipment, power-management software and deployment of occupancy sensors, all aimed at reducing energy consumption and minimising the environmental impact of GBT’s global operations. In 2015, GBT’s CSR priorities include establishing formal processes to measure our greenhouse gas emissions and developing associated sustainability goals in 2016. GBT will also further expand efforts to ensure diversity, inclusion and equal opportunity in the workforce. To guide the development of this report, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines have been applied and followed throughout.  GRI provides the world’s most widely used standards on sustainability reporting and disclosure. GRI’s G4 guidelines provide a framework for reporting on environmental, economic and social issues.