Aviation and the Environment

Posted by A. Caleb Hartley on December 17th, 2007 filed in Air Transport, Earth, WWF, World Wildlife Fund, aviation, awareness, business, carbon, carbon dioxide, carbon footprint, economic, efficiency, efficient, emissions, energy, entrepreneurship, environment, fuel, green, incentive, infrastructure, logistics, operations, shipping, technology, transportation

I currently work as a training professional in the transportation (shipping) industry (my J-O-B), but am working on becoming a full-time, self-employed business owner.  My top two passions are aviation (my bachelors degree is in aviation management) and the environment (everything about it, but specifically how to live well and impact the Earth as minimally as possible).  A close third passion is entrepreneurship (I also have an MBA in entrepreneurship). 

Today is a rare day where we have a not-so common combination of all three!  On the Logistics Today website the other day there was an article called “Air Group Pushes Environmental Programs.”  Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said, “The $132 billion fuel bill that airlines pay is the biggest green incentive of any industry to reduce its carbon footprint.”

Since fuel is any airlines biggest expense, it only makes sense for the IATA to try to help airlines reduce the amount of fuel they burn (or, to put a green spin on this solely profit-motivated opportunity, to increase their efficiency), IATA appointed former World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Chief Operating Officer (COO) Paul Steele to direct new environmental initiatives of the association.  IATA, under Steele, has built an environmental strategy based on the following four elements: new technology, improved infrastructure, efficient operations, and economic incentives.

The article states that IATA helped reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 15 million tons in 2006, though it does not say how it did so or how the reduction was calculated; however, I will stand by environmentastic!’s policy that any focus on the environment is good - even if just to increase awareness of what is possible!

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

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