Travel
How we manage travel to minimise environmental impact
Naturally, as an environmental organisation, we encourage our staff to consider greener alternatives to travel, both on the daily commute - and whilst on business.
Travelling to work
Our head office in Exeter is in a prime location due mainly to its excellent transport links by road, rail and air, making it easily accessible from other parts of the UK and overseas.
Cycling to work
The Met Office supports Cyclescheme. Staff can choose a bike and accessories up to the value of £1,000.
We also have a Met Office Bicycle Users Group (MOBUG) group which organises social trips at weekends and night rides during summer months; the group promotes the health benefits and social aspects of cycling.
We also have a selection of pool bikes at our headquarters that staff can borrow including two electric bikes and a fold up bike. Using the pool bikes often help staff decide the type of bike they would like if they are thinking of purchase their own.
Travelling whilst on work
We work with Clarity Travel Management to help with our business travel needs. By using a single service provider, we are able to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Air travel
However, as an organisation with the environment very much at its heart, we recognise the need to limit air travel. Therefore, our staff must go through a rigorous justification process in order to determine whether air travel is essential.
In order to reduce the need for air travel, alternative approaches such as Microsoft Teams and video conferencing are available.
The white fleet (our owned and leased vehicles)
We have leased two fully electric pool cars at our Exeter headquarters for business travel and we are working to move our operational vehicle fleet over to zero emissions vehicles in line with the Greening Government Commitments.