Earth Day spurs travel industry to go carbon neutral

21 Apr 2018 2143 | World Travel News

NEW YORK, April 21 — To mark Earth Day April 22, some members of the travel industry are responding to this conflict of interest with the launch of carbon offset programs and new policies that allow consumers to erase part of their carbon footprint.

Take a look at how your purchasing power can green your travel this year:

Delta Air Lines 

Throughout the month of April, Delta has pledged to invest in carbon offsets for customers traveling on domestic flights in high-traffic airports across the country. On April 19, the carrier estimated it will have offset the flights of more than 170,000 corporate and leisure customers, amounting to the purchase of 30,000 carbon offsets.

The offsets will go towards one of three projects that include tree planting projects in countries like Kenya and Uganda, to help reverse the effects of deforestation, drought and famine; forest conservation in Zimbabwe; and a project to green the construction industry in Brazil.

Another 15,000 carbon offsets will be purchased to help cancel out the travel of Delta employees throughout the month.

Delta also has an ongoing carbon offset program for flyers, who can calculate the impact of their travel and purchase offsets that go towards partner group The Nature Conservancy.

Air Canada  

Canada’s flagship carrier claims it will save 160 tonnes of carbon on 22 domestic flights on Earth Day by introducing biojet fuel into the airport’s shared fuel system. While biojet fuel has been used in Canada before, those efforts required the use of tanker trucks which fueled aircrafts directly. The Air Canada project, which will be demonstrated at Toronto Pearson International Airport, is billed as the first to blend biofuel into the existing, co-mingled airport fuel supply system. Carbon savings from the biofuel will be accredited to Air Canada domestic flights out of Toronto on Earth Day, to render them less carbon intensive.

Lyft  

Ahead of Earth Day, rideshare service Lyft has announced plans to become carbon neutral. That is, to offset carbon emissions from all Lyft rides globally. By their calculations, in one year, Lyft estimates that they will offset more than a million metric tons of carbon, equal to planting tens of millions of trees, or taking hundreds of thousands of cars off the road.