India's first Carbon Tracker for the travel and aviation industry

Galileo, a leading Global Distribution System (GDS), launched its future generation- innovative product, Travelport Carbon Tracker to monitor the amount of carbon emissions being made due to travel.
"Air travel, although approximately 2% of all CO2 emissions, is one of the fastest growing contributors to the release of harmful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.  Galileo worldwide processes some 800,000 air transactions per day and is well-suited to help the industry measure its carbon footprint."  Commented Mr Bruce Hanna, President & CEO, Galileo in India at the launch.

It will help to discover the routes, travellers, departments and modes of travel that contribute most to total emission. Armed with this information, corporates and individual can decide to set up personal and company reduction targets or off- set through a carbon trading scheme.

Indian travel industry comprises of 8 million outbound passengers, 43 million domestic passengers and 365 million reserved train passengers. 33% of the Indian travellers take air as the mode of travel while 64% prefer the use of train. There are over 5000 travel agencies generating air travel revenue to the tune of US$ 6.6 billion, out of which 28% is corporate travel; while travel and transportation today cost almost 8-10% of a corporate budget.

"By stripping carbon out of the business, organisations have discovered that this is not only good for the environment but that it's also good for the bottom line, achieving savings through, more efficient use of resources and smarter purchasing. Carbon Tracker would be helpful for large travel agencies and corporates who acknowledge the global concern of CO2 and are ready to invest with us for a global cause." Mr Hanna further added.

Air travel, is by far the significant emitter of carbon emissions among the various modes of transportation and thus a contributor to global warming. Travelport Carbon Tracker is a product that will help capture, record and analyse the travel behaviour to give a clear understanding of impact on the environment. The sophisticated reporting package will provide information on total carbon emissions made across multiple travel types (air, road, and rail) that will, once measured, enable corporates to better understand how to manage their carbon footprint.

"Our objectives in launching this tool are to give the industry access to the latest and most improved ways of measuring emissions for business intelligence; to encourage debate and collaboration in terms of emissions benchmarking; and to enable corporations to make informed decisions for sustainable travel as part of their overall travel policies".  Mr Hanna added.

The Travelport Carbon Tracker takes advantage of the latest developments in emissions calculation.  It is one of the first corporate tools to combine industry-standard compliance reporting [1] with an advanced calculator that uses operational data and a range of key variables to deliver more sophisticated emissions analysis. It calculates average emission values by weight, distance and energy use. 
"With more and more Indian companies aligning their policies to international levels; the day would not be far when Indian corporates would be trading its carbon footprints to negotiate their alliances." Added Mr Hanna.

Developed in conjunction with Agresso and The Carbon Consultancy, the Travelport Carbon Tracker has been designed to provide robust intelligence to inform and enable sustainable travel decision-making.  The web-based tool is designed for use with multiple Global Distribution Systems (GDS).

About Galileo:
Galileo, officially distributed by InterGlobe Technology Quotient (ITQ) in India is the National Distribution Company of Galileo International, the leading global travel and technology Distribution Company. Galileo commenced operations in India in 1994 and within a span of fourteen years the company has extended its network to over 333 cities with 21 dedicated offices.

Galileo today has over 11,500 agency terminals with 19 service centres and 11 training centres across India. Over 450 airlines, 52 low cost carriers, 23 car rental companies and 77,000 hotel properties worldwide can be accessed on Galileo Systems.

Galileo has been recognised as the "Best GDS" by Travel Weekly Awards consecutively for 2008 & 2007.
For further information visit us at www.galileo.co.in