Sustainability specialist eco.mio has partnered with German rail operator Deutsche Bahn to offer additional ¡®BahnBonus¡¯ reward points to corporate travellers in the country as an incentive to choose rail over air travel for business trips.

Eco.mio¡¯s browser plug-in integrates with online booking tools to spur travellers to make sustainable choices and its partnership with Deutsche Bahn will allow corporate travellers to gain an extra 100 BahnBonus points for every train journey taken.

As part of DB¡¯s BahnBonus rewards scheme, points can be used to access travel class upgrades, free meals and (with 1,000 points) free train rides.

The initiative is currently being piloted by consultancy firm Roland Berger, which counts approximately 1,000 active travellers among its managed travel programme. The company has an ambitious goal to reduce business travel emissions by 40 per cent per capita by 2028 and has already implemented rail-only mandates on select city pairs.

According to Roland Berger¡¯s latest ESG report, the ¡®vast majority¡¯ of its CO2 footprint is driven by business travel emissions.

Eco.mio co-founder and CEO Katharina Riederer said the four-month-long pilot, which kicked off on 1 April, is already showing ¡°really good¡± results and has also garnered interest among the company¡¯s client base.

Upon completion and evaluation of the pilot, Riederer said the company will look to extend the offer to ¡°a wider range of customers¡± this summer.

The move is an extension of eco.mio¡¯s gamification features, where ¡®eco points¡¯ are awarded to travellers for booking less carbon-intensive travel options, however this is the first time the company is working directly with a rail operator to encourage corporate travellers off of planes and on to trains.

¡°Some people call us the ¡®Miles and More¡¯ of sustainable travel and that plays well with BahnBonus,¡± said Riederer, who added customers usually translate eco points into incentives such as vouchers, cash or charitable donations.

¡°With this pilot, this investment [required] to incentivise green travel choices will drop to zero or near zero for corporates,¡± she said. ¡°In a rational way [the offer] makes sense, it¡¯s a great incentive, but the message of ¡®hey, you get something on top¡¯ also makes the traveller feel appreciated [for making the greener choice].¡±

Similar to eco.mio¡¯s other incentive offers,?Riederer said information about the new BahnBonus initiative can be embedded within the booking flow of online tools.

Upon completion of a DB rail booking, both eco points and BahnBonus points are displayed in a separate user dashboard, which also details travel history, CO2 emissions related to travel and, where applicable, any other rewards earned. BahnBonus points awarded through eco.mio will be added to the user¡¯s BahnBonus account.

In order to access the offer, companies must be an eco.mio customer and registered with DB¡¯s Bahn Business programme.

Eva Barchi, head of key account management ¨C authorities and corporations at Deutsche Bahn, said: ¡°We are all very happy about the new cooperation and look forward to seeing the results of the pilot.¡±

Barchi also told BTN Europe that the scheme wouldn¡¯t have been possible a year ago because ¡°it was a taxation issue¡± and that travellers who¡¯ve utilised points to access free train rides for personal use would have been taxed.

Barchi explained that DB recently established a ¡°special agreement¡± with German authorities that will see the rail operator absorb the tax on behalf of travellers.

¡°We¡¯ve invested in this [initiative] in order to give corporates the possibility to offer [these incentives] to employees without any risk,¡± she said.