Flight Centre appoints Michelle Degenhardt as global sustainability officer

Flight Centre Travel Group has appointed Michelle Degenhardt as its global sustainability officer.

In the newly created role, Degenhardt will work closely with Flight Centre’s people at all levels to help ensure the company’s business practices are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable.

She will collaborate with the company’s senior leadership team, employees, leisure and corporate customers, suppliers and other stakeholders to further develop and oversee strategies to deliver on the organisation’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives.

Degenhardt is based in Flight Centre’s global head office in Brisbane and will report to Brett Anderson, the brand’s global head of risk and sustainability.

“Sustainability is an area that is extremely important to our company, our people and our leisure and corporate customers,” Graham ‘Skroo’ Turner, Flight Centre’s managing director said.

“While we have always had a strong commitment to operating sustainably, as evidenced by the vast array of programs and initiatives that are deeply embedded within our organisational culture, we are committed to enhancing our record in the future.

“Degenhardt’s appointment to this newly created role underlines this commitment and follows the release of our first sustainability report earlier this year.”

Degenhardt has worked for Flight Centre for 17 years and was formerly the company’s culture and employee engagement leader, a role that included oversight of the Flight Centre Foundation in Australia.

During her career with the company, she has also been involved in a number of sustainability-related issues and areas, including the development of the company’s Responsible Travel charter and the creation of a head office recycling and waste reduction program.

The appointment is effective immediately and comes as the company, which is a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, ramps up its corporate social responsibility efforts.

According to Flight Centre, diversity, equality and inclusion are key focus areas, with the company launching its Come As You Are campaign and enhancing its Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in Australia.

Flight Centre Foundation recently awarded five $30,000 grants to Australian not-for-profit businesses, including Escabags (escape bags for domestic violence victims), Happy Paws Happy Hearts (animal therapy for young people), Food For Change (farming for food relief), Little Wings (transport for children to treatments and doctors to rural communities) and National Homeless Collective (more than 600 hygiene programs in First Nations communities and schools).

Featured image source: Facebook/FCTGCareersAustralia