First museum joins employee benefits scheme for sustainable travel
Brunel Museum has become the first in the UK to sign up to the sustainable travel employee benefits scheme Climate Perks.
The scheme allows employers to give their staff paid “journey days”, which they can use to subsidise their annual leave to take low-carbon modes of transport to their holiday destinations.
Brunel Museum's employees are now entitled to a minimum of two paid “journey days”, offering them extra leave time to pursue longer but more eco-friendly alternatives to plane travel.
The aim of the scheme is to encourage people to fly less and embrace “slow travel”. Since launching the scheme, climate charity Possible has seen 60 organisations promise to give their employees at least two travel days.
Katherine McAlpine, director of the Brunel Museum, said: “Our museum tells the story of how Marc Brunel devised and created the first tunnel under a river anywhere in the world. It also laid the blueprint for all future tunnelling projects, including the Channel Tunnel which today is among the best low carbon ways of travelling internationally from Britain. So it feels appropriate that we’re the first museum to sign up to this really important scheme. We’re so pleased to be able to support our employees to make more sustainable travel choices.”
Last year the museum issued a statement on its approach to tackling the climate emergency, and it recently received National Lottery funding for a three-year reinvention project that will see a new welcome pavilion installed, the restoration of the site’s Engine House and other spaces redeveloped to prioritise inclusion and access.
Hannah Bland, project manager for the scheme at Possible, said: “Having a museum sign up for Climate Perks is brilliant. Centres for learning and culture, like Brunel Museum, are invaluable places for initiatives like this to start gaining prominence. We hope that all the employees at the museum are excited by the prospect of low-carbon travel and have some fantastic adventures in getting to their holiday destinations.”
Flying is the fastest growing cause of rising greenhouse gases globally, with a single return flight to Berlin producing the same amount of emissions as 13 equivalent journeys by train.