Is air travel that bad? Our increased use of air travel (in particular short haul flights) is actively being targeted by pressure groups and governments alike- but is it really the worst offender in terms of carbon foot print? And should we be targeting a reduction in air travel as a way of improving our environmental impact? May be not…
Dirty great carbon foot prints
I have a friend who has signed a pledge to only take one flight a year and so having had her summer holiday last year she had to make another trip from London to Dublin to attend a wedding.
Because of her pledge, the trip involved driving a car to the ferry and also taking a train. To settle a debate we were having, we sat down and worked out the full environmental impact of her trip versus taking a flight (the cold winter nights just fly by when you’re with a QCS environmental consultant!).
The result was, she would have had less of an impact if she had broken her pledge and taken the flight. The guilty party was the car!
We’re getting there
According to DEFRA guideline the following figures can be used as a guide to CO2 emissions:
Plane: 0.13kg/CO2 per km (Short Haul)
Car: 0.20kg/CO2 per km (Average UK Car)
Train: 0.06kg/CO2 per km
So rather than being the real villain of the story, air travel can produce less of a carbon footprint than a car.
Little and often
Cars contribute to 26% of your carbon emissions each year and with half of car journeys being less than 5 miles, any organisation should be targeting car use for both business miles and employees travelling to and from work, as it is highly likely that this is actually one of the most significant environmental impacts in your organisation.
Putting this in to practice
I am not suggesting that you buy a bike (although there is a government initiative that allows you to part fund bicycles for employees) or a company jet should be on your shopping list – but there are some simple steps that any organisation can take as part of your ISO 14001 objectives, to influence car use by employees:
- Introduce a travel policy that strongly encourages travel by rail whenever possible.
- Company cars – target a reduction in CO2 emissions on all company vehicles including hire cars. Ideally set a limit for the maximum allowed.
- Try and think of initiatives to promote car sharing to and from work – I know its not a new idea but sharing a car to work for a year would result in a saving of over 500kg of CO2
- Discuss with HR to see if home working or remote working is an option to encourage – even if this is for certain occasions.
And finally – keep at it. This is about influencing people to change which always takes time but with some effort it is a way of reducing a significant environmental impact, albeit an indirect impact, that you probably haven’t thought of.