Hot on the heels of STA’s announcement, Virgin Blue in Australia have announced that they are introducing a carbon offset offering for customers.
We’ve talked about offsetting flights before. In that action we noted that the first step is to reduce flights where possible. But as we all know, sometimes the only way to travel is fly. So in those cases, offsets are a great option.
Although Virgin Blue’s offering is not completely integrated within their booking system (yet) - you have to go to a separate page and enter your booking number - this is great news, and will hopefully speed the awareness and adoption of carbon offset programs in the flying public.
Virgin Blue’s offsets program is also accredited under the Australian Government’s Greenhouse Friendly initiative. This means that the carbon credits purchased by Virgin Blue on behalf of customers are the “real deal”.
Of course, if you don’t (or can’t) fly Virgin Blue, you can still offset your flights through other offset providers such as WWF partner Climate Friendly.
Thanks Grant for answering my question on the different types of carbon offsets. I hope train travel will see a re-birth in this century, especially for business travel. Hopefully the train companies will advertise their strenghts more (easy access to city centres, less hassle on check-in as well as the environmental benefits). Thanks for the great info!
I offset my return flight from Melbourne to Adelaide at Easter time. It cost $1.52. Can this be the full and true cost of pollution from flying? I would doubt it takes into account things like warming caused by condensation trails (”contrails”) at altitude and even for just carbon it seems unbelievably cheap.
What a load of emissions! (please dont “moderate” this sentiment)
Why should the corporate world shift its responsibility to the public for reducing its emissions? What happened to the ethic of “polluter pays”. Companies have the financial resources and the moral responsibilty to reduce their emissions. I dont have a car and use public transport to reduce my resource use, this is at times inconvenient and uncomfortable but its my sacrifice and I don´t expect anyone else to contribute…why should a mega corporation like Virgin Blue be any different?
Nice marketing strategy Branson thanks for contributing to the “tragedy of the commons”! (or this one!)
@ Mikel - Using Climate Friendly’s calculator they price a return flight from Melbourne to Adelaide at around $10. What sort of offsets did you purchase? I’ve noticed that tree-based offsets are generally cheaper than renewable energy offsets. < $2 does sound very cheap…
@ Kane - your not alone in sharing that sentiment. I’ve heard from lots of people who are concerned that government and businesses are “passing the buck” onto individuals. Ultimately we all need to do our bit.
The Virgin move makes it easier for individuals or business travelers who want to offset (a lot of people I know don’t like or agree with offsetting) to do so. That’s a good thing, even if a lot more could be done with government legislation (e.g. introducing a carbon tax).
If Virgin were to do it across all flights, the cost of their product would increase, and they are already operating in a very competitive market - I’ve often wondered how airlines can have such low fares on some flights - so I can kinda understand their reluctance to do it across the board. But it would be nice to see that for sure. Perhaps when Qantas and other airlines offer offsets there’ll be more incentive to go the next step…