1. Objective of study

To assess the extent to which airlines either i/ Offset their own C02 emissions or ii/ Offer customers the opportunity to offset emissions for their flights

2. About the study

The study was commissioned by e-photoframes, (part of Bonito Alimento Ltd) an innovative ethical business that designs and retails photo frames. The report was finalised by managing director Richard Rhodes, who is a qualified accountant and has a degree in Maritime Studies. He spent 10 years working in the City of London before founding the company.

3. Executive summary

a. Only 1% of US airlines have an offset policy. This compares to 16% of UK airlines.

b. Only one airline in a survey of 374 pays to offset their entire annual emissions.

c. No airline offers an offset product that would make a positive environmental impact (i.e. offset plus) and help reduce damage caused by emissions in the past.

          d. Most policies are vague and outsourced to 3^rd party providers

4. Analysis of offset policy distribution

a. Of 374 airlines covered in the English speaking world only 21 or 6% had an online published carbon offset policy

b. In the US of 173 airlines included in the study only two or 1% had an offset policy published on their websites (Delta and Continental Airlines). Notable airlines without an offset policy included Northwest airlines, Southwest airlines, United Airlines, US Airlines and American Airlines.

c. Of 18 airlines listed in India, not a single one had a carbon offset policy.

d. Of the 58 airlines in the UK 9 (16%) had an offset policy. This was the highest proportion of all the countries considered in the survey. Of the household name carriers (including BA, Virgin and large charter operators) nearly all of them had a published policy. BMI was the one notable exception.

e. 15% and 5% respectively of Australian and Canadian airlines have offset policies.

5. Analysis of offset policies

a. Of the 24 offset policies published on the web, only one airline declared a self imposed carbon zero policy (i.e. the airline pays for its own offsetting). This was Harbour air from Canada, the largest all sea-plane operator in the world. The company intends to neutralise all its emissions by January 1^st 2008.

b. Not a single airline offered an “offset plus” product that would result in a net positive impact to the environment and compensate for deficiencies and uncertainties in offset schemes

c. One company (Virgin Atlantic Airways) has yet to publish their policy on the web, merely expressing an intention to do so.

d. Virgin Blue in Australia (listed as two airlines) was the only airline to offer both voluntary offsets to customers and purchase offsets for all staff flight.

e. 9 airlines used third parties, without providing further details, to manage their offset schemes. Given the lack of regulation surrounding offset schemes this is probably not surprising. For example Continental Airlines in the US “STI is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing education and services that support environmental conservation. By choosing to offset the emissions of your flight, Continental and STI will help you invest your carbon offsets in high-impact projects designed to reduce greenhouse gases, such as reforestation or renewable energy”

f. 5 airlines provided explicit details of their offset schemes including those that were managed by themselves. For example Sliverjet (UK) subsidises the use of energy efficient light bulbs in Jamaica.

g. It is very difficult to analyse on balance what type of projects are being used by the airlines. There are several references to tree planting projects and some alternative energy projects but most of the policies are rather vague.

h. Several airlines have crafted environmental policies that seem intent on misleading consumers rather than making a genuine effort to improve the environment and offset C02 emissions.

6. Report Conclusions

Airlines are estimated to account for up to 3% of global C02 emissions according to the European commission. The response by airlines in the English speaking world (contained within this study) demonstrates an almost unbelievable reluctance to at least offer consumers the choice to offset their own individual emissions. Why might this be the case?

Possible explanations include consumer apathy, fear of drawing the attention of consumers on this issue and the possibility that by recognising the issue as a problem it might hasten government imposed regulation.

The airlines that do offer offsets to consumers should be applauded, but more effort should be made on taking a leading role in offset projects rather than simply offloading to a 3^rd party. It would also be positive if some airlines were prepared to make a net positive impact (e.g. by offering an offset plus product) which would also recognise the damage they have done to the atmosphere in the past.

Given the crisis that is climate change it seems that governments have no choice but to impose regulation. Air travel is in many respects a luxury good and therefore should be easy to tax. Talk of inclusion in carbon trading schemes will merely cap emissions at a certain level. If ever there was an opportunity to neutralise a single industries emissions this must be it. Measurement should be relatively easy (using flight logs etc) and airlines would be encouraged to adopt new technologies to reduce that tax they would have to pay.

7. Study approach, data notes and limitations

a. The data pool included all airlines listed in Wikipedia for the US, UK, Australia, Canada and India. These were selected on the basis of a common language.

b. The data collection point was 5^th November 2007

c. Each airline’s website was visited in turn and details of their carbon offset policy were copied on to a data file.

d. Where the airlines website was not accessible or the domain was unrecognised the airline was excluded from the data analysis. 374 websites were accessible while 58 were not.

e. Where an airline was a division of a larger airline it was still counted as a single airline even though they might share the same policy (e.g. BMI Baby is part of BMI and they have the same policy)

f. Where an airlines policy appeared to be more like an environmental policy than an offset policy they were still considered as having an offset policy

g. The study covers a large range of airlines including small charter operations such as Air Harrods and Harbour air

h. If there was no policy found on the website, the airline was e-mailed and given the opportunity to present their policy.

i. There were very few responses from the airlines with no policy (a possible result of spam filters)

j. All companies referred to in the above report without a policy were contacted by phone to verify this was the case.

k. The study recognises that the absence of a carbon offset policy does not mean it doesn’t exist.

l. Every effort has to be made to ensure this report is accurate. In the event that data is either out of date or has been incorrectly recorded, then e-photoframes will be pleased to amend the report.

A full copy of the data is available on request from Richard@e-photoframes.co.uk