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48 Finnair Group don't reduce travelling; reduce emissions. the right routes and choosing the correct means of transport are significant: they can significantly reduce emissions and other environmental loading. On the other hand, reducing travelling does not automatically reduce emissions. Travelling more sensibly Many companies have recently announced that they are reducing the amount of travelling they do. Furthermore, many consumers concerned about environmental issues have begun to consider their travel habits. Flying is easily characterised as an unnecessary luxury and wasteful consumption. Yet at the same time, experts around the world travel to climate conferences in Bali and Japan by air. Business travel overall is also increasing. Why? Because greater progress is made when issues are discussed faceto-face. It is not, of course, necessary to visit the actual location to handle every issue. Sometimes it is sensible to save resources and hold a telephone or video conference. For example, the range of services of the Finland Travel Bureau includes virtual meetings TraWell Meetings saving time, money and the environment, when the meeting does not require a face-to-face encounter. Customer can access the virtual meetings from their own computers, so investments in expensive equipment are not required to arrange a meeting. "Some flying can, of course, appear unnecessary, but who will draw the line and why?" asks Finnair's VP Sustainable Development Kati Ihamäki. when they travel. Distances within Finland, as well as to and from Finland, are long," adds Ihamäki. R estricting travelling does not sound very sensible given that much of the world's economic and social wellbeing depends on it. Instead of less travelling, the key issue is sensible travelling. "Wouldn't it be more sensible for companies to announce that they were reducing the emissions caused by travelling by a third rather than their travelling by a third? Reducing travel will not necessarily reduce emissions, because uneconomical route choices, the carrying airline and the form of transport have a considerable impact on emissions," observes Ihamäki. he superiority of different forms of transport is continually debated: rail transport is miserly in terms of its climate emissions, but on the other hand consumes a lot of non-renewable resources. Emissions from ships into the sea and air are considerable, and car traffic both consumes non-renewable resources and generates lots of emissions. Air transport consumes relatively low amounts of non-renewable resources, but does generate rather more emissions in the air. "The nay-saying debate about the different forms of transport is pointless. The most important thing is the sensible use of all forms of transport: they should be integrated appropriately, both in passenger and cargo traffic," urges Ihamäki. Ihamäki wishes that Helsinki-Vantaa would be reachable by train direct from Tampere and Turku. From the airport, customers would fly to other countries, where they could continue their journeys once again by rail. "But as long as no rail track exists to Helsinki-Vantaa, customers will demand flights from Turku and Tampere to Helsinki," says Finnair's SVP Community Relations and Communications Christer Haglund. Every form of travel loads the environment in one way or another. More relevant than mutual comparison is to compare and improve matters within one's own sector. "If, in some corner of the world, there are no roads or rail network, it is clearly most sensible to fly. If, on the other hand, the infrastructure already exists, it's worth making short and medium-length journeys by train," explains Ihamäki T I n addition to virtual meetings we can also speak of virtual travel. It's rare, however, to travel only for the sake of travelling; it's essential to meet new people, see and experience other cultures, to be somewhere with all one's senses. "And as ordinary working people only have a limited amount of holiday time per year, they really must use the most efficient forms of transport
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