BUSINESS NEWS
EasyJet’s low offset cost is due to wholesale price
Ian Taylor
EasyJet has explained the low cost of its carbon offset scheme for all passengers is due to the wholesale price it obtains because of its size. The carrier began buying carbon
offsets for all passengers in November, revealing the scheme would cost £25 million in the first 12 months. EasyJet carried 96 million
passengers in the year to September 2019 and expects to carry 99 million this year, meaning the cost of each offset is barely 25p. Passengers who individually
carbon-offset flights would pay about £13 for a return Gatwick-Malaga fare. Chief executive Johan Lundgren
said: “We reckon it will cost £75 million to £100 million over three years. It’s important to understand these are wholesale prices. It’s a good price because we’re buying at such scale. Because we are so big, we’re one of the biggest investors in these projects. “EasyJet has taken about 10% of
the wholesale voluntary offsetting market globally. If you offset yourself,
Johan Lundgren
you pay three to five times more.” The carrier insists all offsets it
buys “meet either Gold Standard or Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) accreditation”. Lundgren called on rival airlines
to follow suit last month when reporting first-quarter results. “The initiative has already had
a positive impact,” he said. “Nine million customers have flown net zero and we’ve offset 800,000 tonnes of carbon [since November]. It has increased customer satisfaction –
800k
Tonnes of carbon offset by easyJet since start of scheme in November
11% of customers say they are more likely to choose easyJet in future. It shows customers are aware. “We’re calling for other airlines
to follow us. We think it’s the right thing to do. It’s something people appreciate. [But] we recognise offsetting is only an interim measure.” Robert Carey, easyJet chief
commercial and strategy officer, told a Business Travel Association conference in London last week: “We’re the largest voluntary carbon-offset purchaser in the world [and] the data is pretty clear – 80% of [business] travellers say they are concerned about the impact of travel on the environment. “Customers expect us to do the
work. It’s expensive to do individually and it’s really hard to check whether offset schemes do what they say.”
Tui appoints Wiebe to succeed Ashton as sustainability chief
Tui has appointed Tui Nordic HR director and management board member Charlotte Wiebe as group sustainability director to replace Jane Ashton who joined easyJet as head of sustainability this month. Wiebe will be responsible for
developing and implementing Tui’s Sustainability Strategy 2030, to be presented early next year. She has worked at Tui since
2010, having previously managed Ruter Dam, a management development programme for female executives. She worked in travel for almost 20 years before that. Wiebe said: “Sustainable
transformation is one of the great challenges of our time.” She will report to Tui group director of corporate and external affairs Thomas Ellerbeck, who said: “We want to continue to set sustainability standards.”
Charlotte Wiebe
Clia claims cruise lines meet new emissions rules
Cruise lines complied with new global limits on sulphur emissions ahead of their introduction on January 1, industry association Clia has confirmed, saying: “Clia is not aware of any problems.”
travelweekly.co.uk
International Maritime
Organisation (IMO) limits cut the permissible sulphur content in ship fuel outside designated emissions control areas (ECAs) from 3.5% to 0.5%. The limit is 0.1% in control areas – the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, North American coastal waters and the US Caribbean. Brian Salerno, Clia senior vice-
president for maritime policy, said: “The cruise industry was an early adopter of [emissions control]
technology [because] cruise ships make more port calls, operate near to population centres and operate more often in ECAs.” He added: “We’re proceeding
under the assumption the limit will be enforced. We expect strict imple- mentation in Europe and the US.” However, fellow Clia senior vice-
president for maritime policy Donnie Brown said hitting the IMO target of reducing carbon emissions by 40% by 2030 “will be a challenge”.
Clia confirmed most cruise ships
met the new limits by using exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCSs) which remove sulphur from heavy fuel oil by dissolving it in seawater. Brown acknowledged cost is
a factor in this, but said: “These systems have been found to be safe, including in open-loop mode [discharging wastewater into the ocean]. The decision on which route to take [to compliance] is largely a business decision.”
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