Flight Centre Travel Group sets Itself Up for Best Practice Sustainability Reporting
Sustainability in the travel industry
The Challenge
Flight Centre Travel Group (Flight Centre) is a company many Australians know and love. They have brands operating across the globe servicing a diverse range of customers, from those addicted to adventure to holiday-goers who prefer a slice of luxury.
Whilst we may recognise the Flight Centre brand locally, many of us are not aware of the work the team has done to reduce the impacts caused by those holidays we take.
In 2023, Flight Centre commissioned Edge Impact to support them to tell their sustainability story whilst setting them up for future reporting in alignment with the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) general purpose and climate standards, the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) S2 (climate), and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 3 sustainability framework.
In addition, Flight Centre wanted an in-house solution to calculating its carbon footprint annually.
Key Deliverables
2023 Sustainability Report Copywritten Draft
ISSB IFRS S1 & S2 Gap Analysis
ISSB Roadmap 2024-2027
2023 Carbon Footprint
Carbon Reporting Roadmap & Data Collection Protocol
Carbon Tool with Capacity to Calculate 2024-27 Footprint
2023 Sustainability Report Copywritten Draft
ISSB IFRS S1 & S2 Gap Analysis
ISSB Roadmap 2024-2027
2023 Carbon Footprint
Carbon Reporting Roadmap & Data Collection Protocol
Carbon Tool with Capacity to Calculate 2024-27 Footprint
The Approach
Edge worked with Flight Centre over a period of six months to deliver the suite of deliverables required with input from across Edge’s business units.
Due to the interconnected relationship of each of the deliverables, this project involved strong project management to coordinate team members.
The project commenced with a workshop to set the sustainability reporting vision and approach for Flight Centre. In this workshop, employees and the Board were identified as key audiences for the report, and we set the tone for authentic storytelling.
Once our vision was set, we commenced data and content collection for each of the deliverables.
To complete the ISSB gap analysis and roadmap, Edge facilitated a series of workshops to determine the steps Flight Centre is required to take to enhance the quality of its future disclosure.
This was presented to Flight Centre in a three-year roadmap, considering both ISSB and local AASB S2 requirements. This roadmap fed into the 2023 sustainability report as we build out Flight Centre’s first climate disclosure.
Edge’s reporting and communications experts used the content and data collected in the initial phase of the project to write a comprehensive 2023 sustainability report, with reference to GRI (including GRI index).
The Result
The report launched the sustainability strategy – Preserving and enriching a world worth seeing – and was written to cover each pillar of the strategy.
Feeding into the report was the 2023 carbon footprint, which was calculated by the Edge Impact team. Edge has also supported Flight Centre as they navigate SBTi validation, which they are yet to receive.
Using the insights and assumptions gathered through completing the 2023 footprint, Edge worked with Flight Centre to build and test an excel-based carbon tool that will allow Flight Centre to input data from successive reporting periods and calculate their footprint accordingly.
This tool is designed to enable Flight Centre to upskill its sustainability team and carbon data owners across the business to bring carbon calculation capability in-house.
To assist with future data collection and emission reporting, Edge delivered a data collection protocol, outlining the process, data source and rationale behind collecting data for each scope and category of the footprint.
In addition to the data collection protocol, Edge developed a Carbon reporting roadmap that is to be used in combination with the ISSB roadmap and is designed to strengthen carbon data and calculation over a period of time.
Explore Flight Centre’s 2023 Sustainability Report.
Read it here.
