NatureAir: The Zero Emissions Airline

NatureAir dubs itself as the world's first and only zero emissions airline. Carbon neutral since 2004, the Costa Rican airline combats deforestation by paying local landowners to preserve threatened portions of the jungle. In the past four years, the company says they've offset 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide by saving about 500 acres in the country's lush Osa Peninsula.

This year they flew more than 150,000 passengers on their seven dual-engine, fuel-efficient de Havilland Twin Otters. With more than 70 flights daily between Costa Rica, Nicaragua,and Panama, more than 90 percent of the planes run on time, a phenomenon that's "simply unheard of in this region," according to their site.

NatureAir also recently joined the World Heritage Alliance as its only airline member. The alliance, co-founded in 2005 by the UN Foundation and Expedia, strives to bring a conscience to the travel industry. As a full partner, NatureAir will be supporting community development around World Heritage sites as well as educating its staff and passengers about the importance of heritage preservation and sustainable travel.

IT is thrilled that NatureAir has found a way to thrive by transporting visitors to some of South America's most beautiful and pristine sites while promoting sustainable tourism and giving back to the local community.

Photo: NatureAir

 

Comments

[pam]

THIS is awesome. And it's a great example of the airline itself taking on the responsibility of carbon neutrality - it's their initiative instead of just business as usual, leaving carbon offset issues to the passengers.

With that in mind, I wonder how competitive the airfares? And if passengers are willing to pay a little more to fly a carbon neutral airline. I know I am.

[DonoW]

Harbour Air Ltd. - the world's largest all seaplane airline, based in Vancouver Canada - recently became the world's first airline to offset both 100% of its flight operations (as of October 2007) and 100% of its corporate operations (as of January 2008).

Like NaturAir, all of Harbour Air's offset funds are allocated to new projects along its flightpath, but unlike NaturAir Harbour Air is investing in next generation energy systems to prevent carbon emissions from taking place in the first place instead of temporary carbon storage systems like forests. This means that Harbour Air is investing in systems that will help us to get out of the climate problem in the first place, rather than the just paying to clean up the mess afterwards.

For more details about Harbour Air's climate program, see http://www.harbour-air.com.