80% of your business travel emissions come from just 20% of your routes

In most organizations, a small number of high-impact routes account for the majority of business travel emissions. By identifying and focusing on these routes, you can reduce CO₂ more effectively without cutting all travel.

Most companies think reducing travel CO₂ only means reducing travel. This blog shows a smarter way, by identifying the few routes emitting the most.

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The Pareto pattern we observe in Scope 3.6

In business travel emissions, we consistently see a disproportionate distribution: a small number of routes are responsible for the vast majority of CO₂. It’s not just a theory, it’s backed by real data from across industries, TMCs, and companies.

What’s behind this concentration? Typically, a handful of:

• Frequently flown long-haul routes
• Leadership or sales travelers
• Intercontinental meetings or events

…account for the vast majority of CO₂ emissions under Scope 3.6.

For most companies, this list will feel familiar and immovable, but when you know where the emissions are, you can act with precision. It's not about saying "no" to the travel that drives your business — it's about having a smarter lens on where your efforts (and budgets) can go further.

At SQUAKE, we’ve seen this over and over: across different corporates, TMCs, and geographies, 10–20% of routes can drive up to 70–90% of emissions.

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Why it happens

Several dynamics concentrate emissions into a few travel patterns:

• Longer distances = disproportionately higher CO₂ impact
• Business class emissions are up to 3x those of economy
• Certain teams (like sales or execs) travel more often and farther
• Popular routes (e.g. New York ↔ London) get booked repeatedly

This creates a lopsided emissions footprint, even on smaller travel programs.

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How to identify your 20%

You don’t need new systems — just better visibility. Here’s how:

1. Export all business travel data for the past 6–12 months
2. Group by origin-destination pair (OD pair)
3. Calculate emissions per route
4. Rank by CO₂ output
5. Visualize top 20% of routes by emissions

If you’re using SQUAKE, this takes a few clicks.

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What to do once you've found them

This isn’t about cancelling trips.

And it’s definitely not about pretending travel doesn’t matter. In-person meetings drive trust, alignment, and business growth, and they’re not going away.

But if you know where the emissions are concentrated, you can take smarter action:

• Group trips for more impact
• Prioritise the flights that matter most
• Reconsider cabin class on frequently flown routes
• Consider alternative modes of travel where applicable
• Compare CO₂ before you book—two flights on the same route can have very different emissions
• Offset (or inset, where applicable) high-emission trips with transparency and care
• Track and benchmark to support business travel, not restrict it

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Your CO₂ reduction does not start with a policy

It starts with clarity.

If you can see your top routes, you can act on them.

Want to find your 20%? We’ll help you map it. Book a walkthrough of SQUAKE’s Scope 3.6 route analysis

The companies that see this pattern early don’t just reduce emissions. They optimise spend, improve supplier choices, and create better internal alignment too. That’s what smarter travel looks like.

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