Staff at BBC Worldwide have been banned from taking domestic and short-haul flights as part of one of the most wide-ranging green travel programmes yet attempted in the UK.

Executives have been told they can only fly when travelling by train adds more than three hours to the journey. The edict, from the BBC's commercial arm, means that staff have to take the train to all domestic locations, as well as European cities as far afield as Strasbourg, Amsterdam and Bordeaux.

In addition, they must formally explain why a meeting cannot be held using one of the company's five videoconferencing suites before they can book a long-haul flight.

"For some people it has been a bit painful," admitted David Halford, head of ethical sourcing and environmental policy at the company.

"But we consulted with the board before we introduced the policy and took the view that if we are really serious about cutting emissions it will be painful at times."

The company's environmental department also undertook a study of all journeys taken in the year prior to introducing the policy and found that switching to the train would save the organisation money.

"One of the complaints was that rail travel would be more expensive than flying, but we analysed the data from an entire year and that was just not the case," said Halford. "We are definitely quids in because of the policy."

The company's travel-related carbon emissions have fallen in the past year, although Halford said that at least some of the cuts have been the result of less corporate travel across the business due to the recession.

The flights policy is part of a wide-ranging environmental initiative at BBC Worldwide. It has moved to new BREEAM Excellent-rated offices in West London, replaced office bins with recycling stations, expanded the use of FSC-certified paper in its magazines, and introduced parking charges in the staff car park to encourage greater use of public transport.

Halford said the changes had been well-received by staff and those seeking to get round the new environmental rules will get short shrift from the company's management.

"We got the board to sign this strategy off as company policy," he said.

"Fiddling this will be seen in the same light as fiddling expenses – there will be occasional cases where people have to fly domestically, but they have to have a pretty good reason."