Conferma Pay has launched a new CO2 reporting system that measures the environmental impact of business travel based on payment data from virtual cards.
The system, Conferma Carbon Reporting, is available to both users of the Conferma Pay app and companies using Visa Commercial Pay, focusing primarily on emissions from flights and hotel stays via integration with Thrust Carbon, according to Conferma. When travelers use the virtual cards to pay for hotels and flights, Thrust Carbon’s data – which takes into account data such as flight model and age, flight duration and load factor – can calculate emissions for the trip. It will ultimately help measure the carbon impact of other aspects of the trip, such as restaurants and taxis, said Conferma Pay’s director of strategic relations Paul Raymond. That data could come through Thrust Carbon or other providers, depending on the type of data needed, he said.
Having payment data as a source of CO2 reporting will help address the fragmented nature of available carbon data now that all elements of a journey must be paid for on the same card and it can also be used both for reporting and to influence travelers’ behavior. said Raymond. For example, travelers who pay for an Uber ride or buy a cup of coffee from Starbucks with their card can see the carbon impact of their purchase while making the payment.
“Every traveler, as long as they use virtual payment, can see their emission value as an individual traveler, and you can use that to start educating that traveler,” Raymond said.
The data could eventually also be used for benchmarking purposes, showing typical carbon impacts of trips by city or region for example, he said.