Giving staff time to travel sustainably is smart business - letter for the Financial Times

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  Adrian Ramsay MP co-signed this cross-party letter initiated by We Are Possible.

   Giving staff time to travel sustainably is smart business

  Many employees would choose low-carbon travel for their holidays if they did not have to forfeit precious time off work. Sustainable Travel Leave, pioneered by the charity Possible, offers a simple fix: grant a small amount of extra paid leave when staff choose trains, coaches or ferries instead of flying.

  The principle is straightforward. A London–Berlin rail journey cuts emissions by roughly 92% but takes seven hours longer than flying. Under the Sustainable Travel Leave policy, employers cover that additional time with a modest leave allowance.

  Possible has already supported almost 200 employers to adopt the policy, and it is now spreading internationally as standard practice. Employees can make lower-carbon choices; employers face minimal disruption. 

  Six years’ worth of data shows that the extra amount of leave taken averages just three minutes per employee per month. Yet participating organisations report measurable gains: 74% say it increases staff motivation and wellbeing, 67% say it has aided recruitment efforts, and 81% say it helps embed sustainability across their operations.

  We are calling on the Cabinet Office to offer Sustainable Travel Leave within the Civil Service. It is an ultra low-cost way to align workplace practice with the Government’s net-zero strategy while improving the public-sector employee offer. It also signals credible leadership at a time when voters expect consistency between climate ambition and day-to-day decisions. Crucially, it requires no new regulation, no subsidy and no complex administration.

  The UK has repeatedly shown that people embrace climate-positive measures when they are practical and fair. Allowing employees modest time to travel responsibly is exactly that: commercially sensible, reputationally valuable and operationally light. It should become a standard part of the modern employment offer, in Whitehall and beyond.