Increasingly companies are looking to offset the impacts of air travel when implementing green business practices. However there are many factors that affect the level of your personal (or company) emissions. Here I outline the different factors that affect your level of emissions and experiment with four different air travel carbon calculators.

Factors that Affect your Personal Level of Emissions

Radiative Forcing: As well as CO₂ from buring aeroplane fuel, aeroplanes also release water vapour, nitrogen oxides and methane into the atmosphere. The environmental impacts of these is greater when released at high altitude than what it would be at ground level. While these impacts are not entirely understood, it is generally agreed that a radiative forcing factor should be used when calculating the impacts of air travel (although there are differing opinions on what the radiative forcing factor should be set to). Radiative forcing is the rate at which a given atmospheric gas alters radiation that is entering the atmosphere. Treehugger has a great article on radiative forcing here.

Short or Long Distance: Short distance flights are less fuel efficient overall due to the fuel consumed during takeoff and landing but they also generate less condensation trails (water vapour) due to the shorter time spent at high altitude which also have an environmental impact.

Type of Plane: Newer planes tend to be more fuel efficient than older models.

Occupancy of the Flight: Calculators work by determining the overall level of emissions for the flight and dividing this by the number of passengers. If the flight is not full each person is responsible for a greater percentage of emissions. Some calculators use historical trends to determine this.

Business or Economy: Business class seats take up more space so each person in business class is responsible for a greater level of emissions.

Air Travel Emissions Calculator Examples

I thought I would put the calculators to the test by considering the emissions of a flight I took a few months ago. The flight was a one way direct flight from Singapore to Brisbane flying economy class. Although there are a huge number of calculators available, I selected these four from doing what a lot of people do when wanting to offset emissions – a google search on “air travel emission calculators”

International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) – Carbon Emissions Calculator

The ICAO calculator has you enter your origin and destination, whether you are flying economy or premium class and whether the trip is one way or return.

The result was a distance travelled of 6,143 km generating 479.41 kg of CO₂.

To understand the calculator a link is provided to a 15 page document which explains the methodology and data sources. The calculator is not linked to carbon offsets scheme.

Choose Climate

The Choose Climate calculator uses a map where you choose your origin and destination. There are no place names on the map so accurately picking these is a challenge. The calculator also lets you choose between economy or business class, one way or return and lets you change the occupancy figure for the aircraft.

The result was a distance travelled of 7,466 km generating 273 kg of CO₂.

The site gives some details of their calculations but not a full methodolgoy and it is not linked to a carbon offset scheme.

Terrapass

The Terrapass calculator has you enter your origin and destination, whether the flight is direct, one way or return and what class you are travelling. The calculator also asks for the airline.

The result was a distance travelled of 3,814 miles (6,138 km) generating 1,1001 lbs (454 kg) of CO₂. To offset this through Terrapass costs $11.90.

CO2 Balance

The CO2 balance calculator has you enter your origin, destination and whether the flight is one way or return.

The result was a carbon total of 1.44 tons (1,440 kg) which can be offset through the website (the price depends onthe project you choose to invest in). The website has some notes explaining its methodology.

Choosing a Calculator

In the end end choosing an emissions calculator will be a matter of personal choice. However the more robust calculators include radiative forcing and provide details on their methodolgy. Out of four calculators tested, ICAO and Terrapass provided the most detail on their calculations and also came up with similar results.

Almost every company makes mistakes when they try to establish a green business program. Often the responsibility for improving the environmental performance of the company is added to the existing workload of an employee simply because they have spare capacity. Here we look at how hiring a dedicated environmental officer to oversee the establishment of an environmental program can reduce the likelihood of the company falling into four common pitfalls.

1. Not realising the time required to establish and implement a green business program.

Going green takes time and like many things the time and effort put in will determine the results. Having an employee dedicated to the establishment of the green business program ensures they have the time to investigate the issues, communicate with staff and train on the implementation of green business practices. A dedicated environmental officer will be able to provide an in depth assessment of environmental impacts by undertaking analysis and seeking input from others in the company. As a result the company will have a strategic environmental vision and greater capacity to get things done.

2. Not realising the company doesn’t have the right skill set within the business.

Depending on the size and nature of the business, it can be a complex task to analyse the environmental impacts and determine which green practices to implement. When appointing someone to oversee the environmental program, the company needs to examine the person’s skills and ensure they have the required skill set to do the job. Adding environmental responsibilities to an existing employee’s workload because they have capacity is unlikely to result in a successful green business program.

3. Not communicating with staff

Communicating with staff and ensuring they feel involved in the process of going green takes time but is vital if green business practices are to be implemented successfulyl. Often managers come up with bright ideas but do not give staff sufficient detail to make them buy into the changes. Without someone dedicated to communication and training, it can be difficult to guarantee that staff will receive relevant and regular information. Providing regular feedback to staff on progress of the green business program and ensuring there are open lines of communication also takes time.

4. Not realising the importance of records and documentation

Having your business go green will generate additional paperwork. Is there an environmental policy, a plan of action tied to the strategic vision and an assessment of the environmental impacts? Someone within the company needs to be accountable for creating and maintaining records required to support the environmental program.

As you can see there are a number of difficulties a company may experience on its mission to go green that could be avoided by appointing a dedicated person to oversee the green business program.

Newsweek have just released their 2009 green rankings of the largest 500 companies in the United States. The overall green ranking is based on scores given for the companies’ environmental impacts, green policies and reputation. While not all companies are willing to provide their environmental data (70 of the top 100 did), the hope is the rankings will encourage greater transparency in future as a starting point for improving environmental performance.

The top 5 companies are:
1. Hewlett-Packard
2. Dell
3. Johnson & Johnson
4. Intel
5. IBM

Click here to see the full green rankings.