REDMOND, Wash., December 13, 2007 - Concur (NASDAQ: CNQR), the world's leading provider of on-demand Employee Spend Management services, today announced that the company will donate $200,000 to Conservation International (CI), to support CI’s efforts to protect the Earth's biological diversity around the world. The donation pledge is just one facet of Concur Cares (http://www.concur.com/about/concurcares), Concur’s overall corporate strategy to support conservation and encourage sustainable business practices.
Concur’s on-demand travel & expense service already delivers many environmental benefits, leveraging electronic data capture, imaging and exclusive e-receipt technology that enables employees to submit paperless travel and expense reports electronically. These features drive down costs, streamline the travel and expense management process, and help reduce excessive paper usage.
In addition to the monetary pledge, Concur will integrate carbon monitoring into Concur® Travel & Expense, enabling customers to book air travel, car, and hotel accommodations based on estimated carbon emissions from each leg of their business trip. Concur Travel & Expense will also provide business travelers the option to select low or zero-emission car rental reservations. For companies that have selected specific hotels based on their green initiatives and environmentally-sustainable practices, travelers will be alerted to these suppliers during the booking process, helping to drive environmentally sound decisions that are in line with corporate policies. Since each travel choice is captured online through Concur’s integrated travel and expense process, companies now have a tool to measure the impact of their employees business travel, and can use the data gathered to improve environmentally sustainable practices.
“Our business – by its very nature – makes Concur part of a global community. Our commitment to serving the communities in which we live – at both an individual and corporate level – manifests itself in many ways, including our donation to Conservation International, an organization whose mission and vision we share in” said Steve Singh, chairman and CEO for Concur. “Concur also believes that to continue being a good corporate citizen – as well as an enduring and successful enterprise – our business must invest in technology and adopt best practices that help our company – and the more than 6,200 clients we serve better manage the impact that our activities have on the environment. It’s just one more way that Concur is aligning our interests with those of our clients, as together we lead our industry to become better stewards of our planet.”
“More and more companies are realizing that they can make a difference,” said Glenn Prickett, Senior Vice President Business and U.S. Government Relations for CI. “Companies like Concur want a partner who is able to effectively apply its resources where they produce the most benefit. With Concur’s generous pledge and the ongoing support of companies around the globe, we can continue to focus on developing real solutions that impact the serious global issues facing us today.”
Concur chose Conservation International because of their long-standing commitment to the environment, their exemplary track record in delivering results that produce real change and their efficient and effective operation, which ensures that over 85% of all donations are applied to environmental causes.
About Concur
Concur is the world's leading provider of on-demand Employee Spend Management services. Concur enables organizations to globally control costs by automating the processes they use to manage employee spending. Concur’s end-to-end solutions seamlessly unite online travel booking with automated expense reporting, streamline meeting management and optimize the process of managing vendor payments, employee check requests and direct reimbursements. Organizations of all sizes trust Concur to help them control spend before it occurs while eliminating paper and optimizing supplier relations. Concur’s unified approach to managing employee spend delivers a 360° view into all employee expenses, helping companies globally enforce policies and monitor vendor compliance, while delivering unprecedented control and valuable insight. Concur's suite of on-demand services reach millions of employees across thousands of organizations around the world -- streamlining business processes, reducing operating costs, improving internal controls and providing enhanced visibility and actionable expense analysis. More information about Concur is available at www.concur.com.
About Conservation International
Conservation International (CI) applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth's richest regions of plant and animal diversity in the biodiversity hotspots, high-biodiversity wilderness areas and key marine ecosystems. With headquarters in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, CI works in more than 40 countries on four continents. For more information about CI, visit www.conservation.org.
Press Contact:
Stefanie Johansen, Weber Shandwick for Concur, 425.452.5468, SJohansen@WeberShandwick.com
Katrin Olson, Conservation International, 703-341-2768
Kolson@conservation.org