Special Report
Reduce - Reuse - Recycle
Eureka Travel Solutions is committed to reducing airline garbage. Jo Austin talks to Andreas Schuster, commercial director, about ways in which his company is helping airlines lose weight
OBH: How important do you consider Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is to our industry? Andreas Schuster: CSR is vital to the survival of our species. It’s important the
job is well done and all possible savings are achieved.
OBH: How significant are energy savings? AS: Savings in gas, electricity and transport fuels offer the biggest opportunities for success within a CSR-conscious operation. These can bring ‘big wins’ and are often fairly easy to achieve. They can help businesses make positive, early-impact reductions.
OBH: What about packaging and disposables? AS: It is difficult to make an accurate comparison here as almost all environmental claim statements made by packaging and disposables manufacturers are of a non-quantitative nature. Decisions have to be based on bland statements like ‘recyclable’, ‘renewable resource’ or ‘light-weight’. They can’t.
OBH: Are airlines responding? AS: Airlines are under passenger pressure to comment on their choice of packaging and disposables from an environmental perspective. The packaging’s footprint is their greatest concern. This pressure for quantitative comparisons is why Eureka’s Spider Matrix is receiving so much attention from all kinds of airlines in Europe.
“With the Eureka Travel Solutions’ Spider Matrix we can analyse the impact of equipment not only at the end of life but for its entire life cycle and it has already proven itself.”
OBH: What is your solution? AS: We have an interesting tool to provide airlines with quantitative environmental impact data for their inflight equipment. The Eureka Travel Solutions’ Spider Matrix analyses the impact of equipment, not only at the end of life, but for its entire life cycle.
OBH: How does this help? AS: When comparing energy, quantitative data is used. Kilowatts per hour, litres of diesel, cubic metres of gas, etc, all convertible to kilograms of CO2. Our environmental problem is quantitative (parts
per million of CO2 in the atmosphere) so it stands to reason that the solution to the issue should also be a quantitative one.
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www.onboardhospitality.com
OBH: What are the results of using the tool? AS: Experience is showing that quite large savings in environmental impact can be made using the Spider Matrix measuring tool. Our development team has also come up with a variety of new designs and material combinations which can reduce impact effectively.
OBH: Have there been any surprising conclusions? AS: When making a comparison between similar disposable or rotable utilities on board it is surprising how some raw materials come out best in, say, coffee cups, but will not come out best for other items. Raw material choice can be of low impact in one pack design and far higher impact in another application.
OBH: How will this knowledge feed through into decision-making? AS: The intelligent use of raw material is clearly an important consideration. The Spider Matrix covers some 2900 raw material types and this has proven very useful in optimizing raw material choice in the product design stage. Only slight variances in alloy or polymer specification can deliver a large difference in the water usage or carbon footprint.
OBH: Do you think airlines will be motivated to act responsibly in this area? AS: The Spider Matrix has helped airlines avoid very expensive choice mistakes by clearly showing the carbon levels of each like-utility option available. Experience shows that generally lower-impact items have a lower cost than their higher-impact, like-utility competitors. In difficult economic times the Spider Matrix is an ideal decision-making tool for avoiding high-price, high-carbon mistakes.
T +31 (0)1 807 442 50 M +31 (0)6 130 06529 E
andreas@eurekaconcepts.com W
www.eurekaconcepts.com
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