Your travel policy and
the 2026 carbon budget

For years, corporate ground transport was a procurement decision with one variable: price. That is changing, and the change has a date attached.

What actually changed

South Africa’s Climate Change Act came partially into effect in March 2025, and the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s technical guidelines set the first carbon budget commitment period as 2026 to 2030. That moves large companies from preparing to proving.

Crucially for travel managers, business travel is explicitly listed in the JSE’s climate disclosure guidance as a Scope 3 emissions source. Scope 1 is what you burn directly, Scope 2 is the electricity you buy, and Scope 3 is everything else in the value chain — including every flight, hotel night and car your staff use.

Why ground transport is the awkward part

Flights are relatively easy to account for: there is a ticket, a route and an established methodology. Ground transport fragments. Staff book their own cars, pay with personal cards, and expense them later with no detail about vehicle type or distance.

The result is emissions figures built on averages and assumptions — and those are precisely the methods assurance teams and auditors are increasingly rejecting. A number you cannot evidence is a finding waiting to happen.

What good suppliers will look like

Preferred supplier lists are starting to favour providers who can deliver consistent, auditable emissions information rather than a sustainability page. In practice that means three things: the trips are captured in one system, the data is per-journey rather than estimated, and the supplier can show progress on their own footprint.

Leading South African companies are already moving. Discovery has committed to cutting business travel emissions by 30% by 2030. Sasol measures and reports its business travel footprint using granular data rather than estimates.

Where an electric fleet fits

If the cars are electric, every trip is a zero-tailpipe-emission trip, and the reporting question becomes straightforward rather than awkward. That is the position GoLula is in: we run an all-electric fleet, every booking is captured in one system, and corporate accounts receive a per-trip and monthly emissions statement.

We will also be plain about the limits. We report tailpipe emissions from the trips we run for you. We do not make claims about upstream grid electricity or vehicle manufacture, and we are happy to walk a sustainability team through exactly what our figures cover.

This article describes general reporting context and is not legal, accounting or assurance advice. Your obligations depend on your listing status, sector and auditor.