I fly a lot. More than a lot of people I work with can imagine. It is the second year in a row I have earned the Platinum One Qantas frequent flyer membership status, which is 3x as much flying as a Platinum member. I am in the top 5% of all Platinum One travellers on Qantas. That is equal to ~821,343 kms, visiting 69 cities in 16 countries and being 254 days on the road.
Now it might surprise you, but I do care about my carbon footprint. I do actually try to avoid travel. In case you are wondering: I have to sit in Economy Class (unless I can upgrade on points) due to IBM’s travel policy.
So at the beginning of the year, when Australia was impacted by bush fires and my new home in Melbourne was hit with bad smoke – I figured it is time for a change – it is time to fly carbon neutral.
Most of my flights are for work. I value the human side of my job and try to have as much customer engagement across APJ as possible. When my travel is booked though, I simply lack the option to offset my flights. To be honest, I have never “ticked the box” on my personal flights either.
Given some stats I researched, I can almost bet that neither have you? The International Air Transport Association (IATA) states that just 1% of all airline passengers offset their carbon emissions through voluntary programmes! It seems to be a hot topic though: more and more people reference carbon footprint when discussing travel. To act on it though has been difficult.
Even worse, I have realised that I am trying a lot of things to reduce my ecological footprint (find out yours here: https://www.footprintcalculator.org) – and still did not do anything about my air travel.
So earlier in January, when I wrote my blog about my 2019 travel, I reached out to Qantas. Simple question: can I offset all my 2019 flights with them?
Yes you can. Turns out that Qantas has their own program called: Qantas Future Planet.
Qantas is supporting 3 main projects:
- Reinvigorating Indigenous Traditions
- Empowering Rainforest Communities
- Conserving Tasmania’s Wilderness
I have selected 2 of these projects and it was a pretty straightforward process. Given the back and forth in the media on causes of the Australian bush fires in 2019/2020, I felt that helping the North Kimberley Fire Abatement project was a decent thing to do and was in alignment with what initially caused my change of habit.
Now, if you have read this far – I am sure you have asked yourself: why write a blog about this? Simple: I wanted to show myself that I can take on the responsobility of my own actions. More importantly though: I can be an invitation to others too.
If I can offset 40+ trips, so can you?
I have done some research to make sure that this “offsetting” thing is really worth it. Here are some links for you to read:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/tips/questions-about-carbon-offsets-flights-answered
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2019/aug/02/offsetting-carbon-emissions-how-to-travel-options
Of course I do understand that the best option is to avoid flying in the first place. Regardless, I have to admit that I actually feel better since I have decided to fly carbon neutral.
Some projects you can review: American Carbon Registry, Climate Action Reserve, Gold Standard, Plan Vivo and Verra.
I hope this blog has been an invitation. Maybe an inspiration, or at least food for thought. Let me know, if you decide to give it a try as well. I would be honoured…
