Cathay turns a deeper shade of green

HONG KONG – Cathay Pacific Airways and its sister airline Dragonair have jointly launched “FLY greener”, a new voluntary carbon offset scheme that will give passengers the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint by offsetting the carbon emissions attributable to their journey.

This is the first time for any Asian airline to introduce a carbon offset scheme, and also the first time for a scheme directly managed by an airline itself to offer passengers the option of using cash or frequent flyer miles.

“FLY greener” is an extension of an in-house programme that offsets the carbon emissions associated with staff travelling on business for either Cathay Pacific or Dragonair.

Within the space of the year the in-house programme has already raised nearly HK$1 million that will be used to buy offsets.

To further highlight its commitment to the new offset scheme, Cathay Pacific and Dragonair will match the contributions of their passengers dollar for dollar for the first three months of the programme.

To offset their travel, passengers can access the “FLY greener” site at the Cathay Pacific or Dragonair websites and use the online calculator to work how much it will cost to offset their emissions based on the distance of their flight and the class of travel.

Flight emissions are calculated using fuel use data from the Cathay Pacific and Dragonair passenger aircraft fleets.

Cathay Pacific chief executive Tony Tyler said: “Climate change is a huge issue that needs to be addressed with some urgency. While aviation accounts for only 2% of global man-made carbon emissions, we support the industry’s commitment to dramatically reduce emissions.”

The carbon offsets will initially be sourced from a wind farm project in Shanghai – one of the first to employ high-capacity turbines in mainland China.

The wind farm’s production of clean energy reduces the demand for coal-fired power stations in the region and helps to reduce pollution. The power generated by the turbines at this wind farm is fed into the Shanghai power grid without producing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide or other pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and particulates.

The new Cathay Pacific/Dragonair carbon offset scheme has been made as simple and transparent as possible, and passengers who choose to show their concern for the environment can see where their contributions are going by
reading about the current and planned projects on the “FLY greener” website:

www.cathaypacific.com/flygreener or www.dragonair.com/flygreener.