Climaterisk

Unlike their north American counterparts, european railroad companies are still competing effectively against airlines and personal cars. This competitive dance has long played out along the familiar themes of convenience and price. Recently however, the French national railway (SNCF) has deployed a new weapon, competing on carbon emissions

Initially, the SNCF responded to the increase in air and car travel by competing on price, a proposition that was facilitated by generous government subsidies. In order to compete with the faster speeds of air travel, the SNCF developed faster trains (TGV). As the TGV network expanded to more and more cities in Europe the focus of competition switched to convenience. The SNCF and it’s partners undertook an extensive advertising campaign to educate consumers on the convenience of using the train as opposed to flying. Namely, city center to city center service and the ability to hold meetings and get work done while traveling.

The rise in public convern over climate change provided the SNCF with an additional untapped resource. of the three main transport modes in continental Europe (Train, Planes and Automobiles), train travel is by far the most efficient of the three main transport modes in continental Europe (Train, Planes and Automobiles). This is especially true in France where all the trains are electric and most of the electricity comes from nuclear energy.

While an advertising campaign highlighting rail travels’ environmental benefits might have been a potential avenue for utilizing this newfound asset, the SNCF decided to go a step further by leveraging another existing asset, a travel booking website where users could compare and buy air, rail and car rentals. A new feature was integrated into the site, for each trip the CO₂ footprint of each travel mode is calculated and displayed along with the lowest price. L’EcoComparateur ^tm was born.