This is about our approach to climate change and our environmental footprint, what we are doing to offer a more sustainable product and service, how we work with our suppliers to further the sustainability movement, and how we engage in the production of new technologies to improve sustainability in aviation.
We hold ISO14001 and ISO9001 accreditations and are proud to have been carbon neutral across our global internal business operations since 2007. We don’t just rely on offsetting. We’re also actively working to reduce our footprint through a series of initiatives: - We’re transitioning our company cars over to electric, switching to LED lighting, aiming to use 100% recycled paper in the short term, whilst also moving towards a paperless culture, with a zero waste to landfill commitment for our London office, which we are looking to extend internationally.
We get it, aviation is up there with the automotive industry and power generation as one of the industries which is polluting our planet, even accounting for the huge gains made in the sustainability and emissions efficiency of aircraft over the last 50 years. Unfortunately, unlike some aspects of power generation and the automotive industry, the technology to make aviation completely green is not here yet. So, in February 2020, we launched our carbon offset scheme, offering our customers the opportunity to offset the emissions of their flights for a small additional charge of 0.5% of their charter price.
We have been investing in research around more sustainable fuel options for a long time, and it is one of the best short term options to significantly reduce the aviation industry’s carbon footprint. Instead of being refined from petroleum, it instead is produced from sustainable resources such as waste oils from biological origins, agri residues, or non-fossil CO2.
We started to invest in electric flight research as far back as 2014. We were the founding sponsor of Powering Imagination, Eric Lindbergh’s sustainable aviation project. We are now committed to investing into further initiatives and research, with an annual budget of £60,000.
As a brokerage, rather than an operator, our direct impact on the environment is relatively small. However, we are still a key part of the aviation industry, and as such, are committed to playing our part in helping drive innovation forwards and supporting the development of technology that will lessen aviation’s environmental footprint by supporting the research and study of two PHD students that are exploring ways to reduce carbon emissions in aviation.
Although not part of our direct operations, we believe the environmental impact of the flights we commission on behalf of our customers is something for us to work closely with our suppliers on. All suppliers we work with must comply with our Code of Ethics and provide data on the carbon footprint of the flights they provide to us, as well as to set their own targets for emission reductions and continuous improvement. We recognise that not all suppliers have the same resources so for any supplier unable to provide the required information, we work with them and help them understand the processes required and how to take action.
As Africa’s population is growing, forests are being cleared for human settlement and wood is being harvested faster than it is being replanted. Hestian’s improved cook stoves and fuel efficiency projects in Southern Africa directly reduce wood usage and indoor cooking smoke, which in turn slows deforestation and lowers household air pollution.
Hestian’s efforts have resulted in over 566,658 homes using improved cook stoves and institutions using 1,239 fixed institutional stoves which has helped create over 2,000 jobs.
UPC provide wind turbines that create clean energy, without releasing harmful emissions into the environment. One example of this is the 75 MW Sidrap Wind Farm project, located in the Sidrap region, in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The project is Indonesia’s first utility scale wind farm and began providing power to the Southern Sulawesi PLN grid in March 2018. The project uses 30 Gamesa 2.5 MW turbines.
The Sidrap Project is in a location with strong winds as well as a supportive local community. Numerous jobs in both project development and construction have been created with the majority being filled by the local citizens from the region.
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