MyWestworld

Flying Green

Posted on 04. Sep, 2008 by Kerry Banks in Travel Blog

Air travel has long been lambasted, particularly by environmental groups, for the amount of gas emissions that flights release into the atmosphere. A recent study for the European Commission found that aircraft travel currently causes from 3.5 to 7.4 percent of global warming emissions. However, there are predictions that this will rise to 15 per cent because aviation is one of the few sources of greenhouse gases that is growing. In fact, air travel has been predicted to triple in volume in the next 30 years.

If you fly, you are contributing to the problem. Let’s say you’ve just jetted from Vancouver to Toronto. Each passenger, including you, has just accounted for an additional tonne of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases per person pumped into the atmosphere. That’s twice as bad as driving the trip in a gas-guzzling SUV.

Feeling guilty? Well, there is something you can do to relieve that guilt. To make up for the carbon dioxide your trip creates, you can support programs for planting trees, which consume CO2, or energy-saving projects that reduce CO2 emissions elsewhere. You can do this by buying a carbon offset. As the name implies, carbon offset programs are designed to “offset” the impact of environmentally unfriendly activities such as flying or driving by putting a dollar value on damage done to the environment and then investing an equal amount of money in environmental programs, initiatives or technologies that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as building windmills, installing solar water heaters or retrofitting buildings with more efficient lighting. Dozens of web sites now offer carbon offset programs (the David Suzuki Foundation offers a list) that allow you to calculate just how much CO2 your jet-setting will spew.

Proponents claim offsetting can help in the fight against global warming and is making people reflect on the impact they have on the environment. Eager to look green, airlines and other travel companies are jumping on the bandwagon. In fact, a growing number of airlines now offer to calculate how much carbon dioxide your trip has generated and how much money should be given to projects that, in theory at least, will reduce emissions by an equivalent amount somewhere else in the world.

Silverjet, which began flying in January 2007, was the world’s first airline to go carbon neutral–the British all-business class airline levies the environmental cost for each passenger on their flights and include it in the ticket price. British Airways, Scandinavian Airlines, Qantas, Virgin Blue, Delta and Continental have all introduced carbon offset programs. Canadian airlines have also jumped on the bandwagon.

Air Canada signed a deal with Zerofootprint under which ticket buyers can voluntarily pay a small fee to the non-profit environmental organization, based on the CO2 output of their flight. Air Canada doesn’t get any of the cash; it simply facilitates the transaction. The money raised is used to plant trees in British Columbia. Visit Air Canada’s Carbon Offset page www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/traveller/zfp.html) and click Offset Now. You’ll be taken to a Zerofootprint Web page. Enter your departure and destination cities and, presto, it gives you a carbon-dioxide emission tally and a price tag for offsetting your CO2. For one passenger on a Montreal-Paris return trip, for example, the total CO2 emissions are 1.2 tonnes; the cost of offsetting it would be $19.20. Enter your credit card information and you’re good to go. Read about Zerofootprint’s environmental initiatives on its website (www.zerofootprint.net), where you can also calculate how much your other activities contribute to global warming.

WestJet does things a little differently. It has an arrangement with a non-profit organization called the Offsetters Climate Neutral Society. When customers book WestJet tickets via www.offsetters.ca, WestJet gives a small amount to Offsetters, which invests the cash in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects that would not have taken place without its involvement. For example, if you use WestJet to go from Montreal to Orlando, Florida, your total carbon offset cost would be $16 per passenger. The customer doesn’t pay extra for flying carbon neutral; WestJet pays the fee out of the price of the ticket.
Offsetters, founded by two UBC professors, is working with other groups as well, including travel agencies.

Even so, the concept does have its critics. Opponents say offsetting gives people the mistaken impression that they can keep on polluting or that such individual efforts can solve global warming, when much more fundamental change is needed. They contend that carbon offsets are a method of easing company and consumer guilty consciences with financial contributions while continuing to pollute the environment.

It is also still unclear how many customers will accept the idea of adding yet more fees to already pricey tickets. According to a recent survey, only 23 per cent of Canadians surveyed said they would likely pay an extra $10 for carbon offsets. And, judging by the Silverjet example, you have to wonder how effective a marketing tool the pledge of carbon-neutral really is. Silverjet closed its doors in May 2008, citing the rising cost of fuel.

If you want to further investigate the concept, you may want to check out these web sites:

Terrapass.com, a carbon offsetter working with Expedia.com and other companies.

Carbonneutral.com, which features good explanations of how carbon offsetting works and handy carbon-footprint calculators.

CleanAir-CoolPlanet.org, which includes a consumer’s guide to carbon offsets.

Carboncatalog.org, which offers a list of carbon offset providers.