First there was economy class, business class and, on some airlines, first class. The discerning traveller can even book an exclusive suite, but the newest addition to the world of air travel is “green class”.
Unlike other classes, green class offers no exclusive perks such as vegan meals. Instead you could end up next to a snoring Texan who drives a gas-guzzling SUV and who paid a lot less for his seat than you did.
The difference is that a “green class” purchase will help to ensure that your once-in-a-lifetime holiday to the Maldives doesn’t contribute to the island disappearing under the water in the next few years.
The disastrous effects of air travel on the environment, and particularly its contribution to climate change, have become increasingly evident in recent years. Although only about 2% of worldwide emissions come from aviation, it is understood that — because of the high altitudes airlines fly at — the emissions are more damaging to the environment.
Which is why big airlines, such as Qantas, Virgin and British Airways, have introduced a “green class” with a carbon-offset scheme in which passengers can invest. South African Airways does not have a formalised scheme at this stage.
Carbon offsetting is not limited to airlines. Car-hire companies, such as Hertz, and internet travel companies, such as Expedia and Travelocity, allow their customers the option of adding a “green factor” to their booking.
The companies team up with a green organisation that channels funds directly to carbon-reducing projects, such as installing solar panels in the developing world, financing wind power or — the most popular scheme — simply planting trees.These service providers tack the cost of the offsets on to the ticket or service price.
One organisation in the United States that many airlines have linked up with is MyClimate, which creates renewable energy through projects in developing countries. It collected R2,4-million from the sales of carbon offsets last year, which it claims neutralised about 30 000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. This year the organisation says it has collected more than R14-million from passengers already.
Of course, you don’t have to go through the airlines. There are literally hundreds of companies on the net that will take your money, promising to ease your green conscience. If you buy into them it is important to check your money is actually used to plant that pledged tree.
Calculating your travel footprint is easy. There are a host of calculators on the web that will tell you how much you have to pay to offset your travel.
To calculate my flight from Johannesburg to Bali, which I will be taking in December, I visited the Carbon Neutral Company (http://www.carbonneutral.com/). According to the site’s calculator my return flight, covering 28 346km (I am flying via Hong Kong), will produce 3,1 tons of CO2. It will cost me R627,13 to offset my carbon footprint. It seems having a green conscience can add quite a premium to your travel expenses.
Using Air Canada’s formula for calculating how many trees should be planted to offset my Bali flight, I calculated that about 15 trees would have to be planted. That is about one tree for every 2 000km flown.
A direct one-way flight from Johannesburg to Heathrow in London, covering 9 083km, produces one ton of CO2. You can silence your conscience by paying an extra R202, the website advises.
At the moment South Africans who want to offset their travel carbon emissions will have to do so through companies on the internet or through the airline itself.
Apparently not many South Africans are worried about it. When I asked local travel agents about carbon-offset schemes most responded with a blank stare. A couple promised to find out more.
Last month Virgin officially launched its Gold Standard Carbon-Offset Scheme. The carrier’s passengers can offset their travel during a flight by voluntarily buying into the carrier’s green class.
The airline partnered with Myclimate to offer the offsets either onboard or online. Business-class passengers fork out more because their footprint is bigger (apparently their seats are heavier).
Virgin says it hopes that 25% of its passengers will use its carbon-offset scheme in the next year and that the figure will increase to at least 50% in the next five years.
With thousands of delegates heading off to the Bali conference on climate change, it seems the carbon-offset schemes should make a killing, considering that the delegates are supposed to be “green” minded.
But airlines complain that only a minute portion of their passengers buy into the green class. In Britain, a country with a relatively large green conscience, a recent study showed that only 7% of British travellers bought carbon offsets, although 40% indicated that they would reconsider flying because of the high carbon offsets.
Because of its dynamic low-cost airline industry, British passengers also emit the most carbon per person per flight.
Virgin says it expects its green class to become more profitable and uses a strategy where it “guilt trips” passengers into buying green credits once they are a captive audience on board. British Airways’s green scheme has not been the success the company envisioned and Virgin claims that it is mostly because that airline did not “market it more aggressively”.