How do you strike the balance between sustainability, safety and customer experience? Lux Express’s experience with the CliNeDest pilot programme
How do you make the right business decisions? Many tourism companies are currently facing similar challenges. How can you reduce environmental impact? What changes actually yield results? How do you make more sustainable choices while ensuring customer satisfaction, maintaining service quality and keeping the company operating efficiently?
It was precisely these questions that Lux Express also sought to answer by participating in the pilot programme of the international CliNeDest project.
Company: Lux Express
Sector: international and domestic coach passenger transport
Size: one of the leading long-distance coach companies in the Baltic States, serving millions of passengers annually
Location: Tallinn, Estonia
Lux Express did not start from scratch. The company had previously had some limited experience with ESG reporting and was already working to improve the efficiency of its coach fleet and reduce fuel consumption. Through the pilot programme, Lux Express wanted to look at these activities more systematically and gain a better understanding of how different decisions affect the company’s climate impact and business development.
According to Marlis Soomets, Marketing and Communications Manager at Lux Express, the company’s goal was not to find a single specific solution. It was much more important to understand how to evaluate different options and make decisions that take into account environmental impact, customer experience and the company’s goals all at once.
“The most difficult thing for us was understanding how to measure climate impact in a way that would be truly useful from a management and business development perspective.”
Measuring helps us see the bigger picture
The CliNeDest workshops introduced participants to climate impact assessment tools and calculators that help businesses better understand which activities have the greatest impact on their environmental footprint and where the greatest opportunities for change lie.
According to Soomets, the purpose of measuring is not to collect data for the sake of collecting data. It is important to understand what decisions have a real impact and what changes could yield the greatest results.
When there are no simple answers
One of the most important lessons for Lux Express was that sustainability does not always mean simple or obvious solutions. For example, the company discussed ways to reduce the use of single-use packaging. At first glance, some solutions may seem more environmentally friendly, but on closer inspection it becomes clear that many more factors need to be taken into account.
Glass bottles would help reduce plastic use, but at the same time would increase the weight of the coaches and thus fuel consumption. Installing drinking fountains on coaches could reduce packaging, but would also mean passengers moving about more during the ride, which affects safety.
The company is also looking for ways to reduce the use of single-use coffee cups and plastic lids. One option is to encourage customers to bring their own drinking cups, but here too, service processes, technical limitations and customer experience must be taken into account.
For Lux Express, it was important to realise that sustainability cannot be separated from our other goals. Every solution must work equally well from the perspectives of environment, safety, customer experience and the company.
“The most important thing is not to make changes simply for the sake of change, but to understand their actual impact and make informed decisions.”
Trust is built on data
According to Soomets, sustainability in tourism is increasingly becoming a matter of trust. Whereas in the past it was often enough for a company to simply state its environmental principles, today customers and partners increasingly expect evidence-based answers.
The more sustainability is discussed, the more important it becomes to be able to back up one’s claims with data and facts.
What did CliNeDest offer?
For Lux Express, the greatest value of CliNeDest was not receiving ready-made solutions, but rather the opportunity to think through complex issues and having a framework for evaluating various options.
The workshops did not try to find the same solutions for all companies. Rather, the programme helped participants take a systematic look at their operations, discuss the pros and cons of various solutions, and understand which options might work best for the specific company. It is precisely these kinds of questions that the CliNeDest’s workshops help find practical answers to.
Following the pilot programme in Tallinn, companies will be able to see how similar issues are being addressed throughout the Baltic Sea region. Lux Express will also share its experience at the international CliNeDest forum “Less Carbon – Double the Fun” in Tampere this autumn.
Lux Express’s experience shows that sustainability does not always start with large investments or ready-made solutions. It often starts with asking the right questions and the ability to assess the overall impact of the various options.
This autumn, the CliNeDest workshops will continue with new topics and practical tools. CliNeDest welcomes companies that want to better understand their impact, make more informed decisions and develop services that meet both their business goals and the expectations of future customers.