From Airtravel to Fairtravel

Why & How Individuals and Organisations, Should & Can Rethink Travel Choices for a Sustainable World.

“Heal the world

Make it a better place 

For you and for me and the entire human race, 

There are people dying 

If you care enough for the living, 

Make it a better place for you and for me”

Michael Jackson’s ‘Heal the World’ is a reminder for us that as humans we have the ability and opportunity to heal just as often as we cause socio-ecological wounds knowingly or unknowingly.Something to remember while reading this article and considering your organisational and/or individual approach to travel.

Our transport systems and socio-ecological injustice

Our transport systems play a major role in shaping the overall condition of the planet we inhabit : Coasts are being reclaimed to make way for coastal roads directly jeopardizing the lives of marine organisms and fisher folk. Other life supporting ecosystems such as mangroves are being choked to make space for airports and its accompanying infrastructure.  Forests and farmlands are being destroyed for high-speed intercity travel. In the everyday world the comfort of smoke-emitting vehicles is prioritized over cyclists, pedestrians and other living beings, too. Vehicles and the infrastructure they necessitate, no matter where they are based, contribute to carbon pollution and impact the lives of the vulnerable, the most! How do we know who is vulnerable? Well, they are the people and living beings whose voices you’ll barely hear on the news and won’t hear directly on social media sites at all. These are the voices smothered by concerns over GDP and social status. Reflect on this a bit and you’ll know who we are talking about. 

Transportation is therefore one of the many factors contributing to carbon pollution and the climate crisis it catalyzes. For instance, people and other beings have to battle floods, droughts and climate crisis induced calamities. There have also been reports of people losing lives due to health ailments propagated by pollution, too. You might be wondering what you can do about this.  This article shares a humongously impactful but not yet widely popularised way to contribute to a sustainable and just world- by rethinking our priorities and our travel choices.  

We are here to convey the need to minimize and as far as possible replace  a seemingly  clean and convenient, yet monstrous and deeply unjust mode of travel – air travel. To let you know that this vital yet seemingly impossible proposition is in fact a possibility, we’ll also share our experience of working towards this within our own organisation and with WIPRO Ltd. (IT company) .

Why reconsider air travel?

The airline industry cleans up its appearance pretty well but only after smothering life giving ecosystems and causing much carbon pollution. Beginning at the airplane and airport construction and continuing with fuel extraction and other processes, air travel is far from clean. Additionally, the seemingly ‘clean’ interiors of airplanes and airports, are breeding grounds for social inequity. They constantly endanger the health of both social and ecological systems. To support this here is some data compiled by our collaborating network to counter aviation, StayGrounded.

Air travel  is accessible unequally across the globe :

This mode of travel that is accessible to only the privileged few is in fact one of the largest climate crisis perpetrators :

One of the many reasons the total climate impact of aviation is not recognised is because of a lack of focus on the non-carbon dioxide emissions by the sector :

You might wonder, ‘Why not transition to e-fuels and other existing alternatives?’ However, while climate mitigating alternatives like biodiesel and solar powered or electric aircrafts might seem promising, they are for the time being at least ‘deficient’. Solar PVs have a negligible impact, biodiesel availability is insufficient to meet the present let alone future demand (not to mention its own climate impacts) and the expected timeline for electric aircraft in regular commercial operations is not earlier than the end of the 2030s. For details of these critiques refer to the ‘Airline industry’s response’ section of this article. So if the choice of fuel or power source for air travel is not enough, what will get us closer to a sustainable travel? 

Beginning to step away from air travel: The cBalance and Wipro experience

The first step to reducing air travel is to re-think about the criteria we use to evaluate it. You may think it is a more hygienic, fast and comfortable means of transport. You may also see its necessity for in-person business meetings. Why would we sacrifice such a convenient, comfortable and efficient mode of travel? This is where considering the sociological and ecological injustices and looking at the present day realities of our time, inclusive of the covid-19 pandemic and other natural and human-induced disasters, has changed the stakes. If sacrificing comfort is our concern, can we sacrifice the lives of our fellow humans and other non living beings just for comfort? If hygiene is our concern, can we ignore the dumping of toxic GHG gases in the air, impacting the health of the present and future generations of humans and other beings? If travel time is our concern, do we really need to travel that much? (Hasn’t the covid- 19 situation revealed that virtual meetings get much of the job done.) Or can we make the time spent travelling something that adds to our lives, something that we can be present to, if not look forward to? 

Since 2015 we have been supporting Wipro Ltd. in studying their organisation’s flying patterns and suggesting ways to reduce carbon pollution from air travel. Wipro has managed a 15-20% reduction of climate impact from air travel, between 2015 and 2020. This reduction has been gradual and has involved them integrating the following suggestions in their organisations travel policies:

1. Choosing non-stop flights over multi-stop flights, as far as possible.
2. Choosing virtual meetings over in-person ones whenever possible.
3. Choosing airlines having less carbon footprint (Best-in-class airlines)
4. Choosing economy class over business class travel
5. Transitioning to bus/train travel, as far as possible.

As is evident from these measures, Wipro attempts not only to reduce the impact of their flying but also to reduce flying itself. This is based on the knowledge that over a 1,000 km journey, an air traveler emits 285 kgs of CO2 kilometer while a railway passenger in even an AC executive-class compartment emits 30 kgs while in a comfortable AC bus the same passenger emits 70 kgs (Ref 1). Wipros policy includes that journeys in India that are less than 12 hours long need to be by train, unless employees are supposed to be back in the office on the next day. At cBalance we ourselves take this measure a step further. Everyone from the most-experienced to the youngest team member travels by rail for domestic travel irrespective of the number of hours of travel. However, this policy is not implemented without consideration. If someone is unwell or unable to sit for long hours or if there is an emergency and air travel is unavoidable we do consider it. Such a progressive policy may take some work to be implemented in organisations such that it is applied appropriately. It may require challenging conversations around what is a ‘need’ and what is a ‘want’. It may require challenging conversations around positions of power and economics. However, it is precisely because of the disproportionate impact and injustice that those with privilege have caused and continue to cause that this is the direction in which we must move and that the privileged must make the start. For example, it will be of little use if policies such as Wipro’s are not applicable to employees across all grades. Fortunately, Wipro is in the process of addressing such loopholes. 

Similarly, while smaller organisations like ours have long chosen virtual meetings with overseas partners and other sustainable choices, events in recent years are necessitating that even larger companies reconsider their choice to fly. The Stay Grounded network presently comprises 160 members across the globe who are doing the same. And there are of course organisations beyond the network acting in the same direction to minimize socio-ecological injustices of the air travel industry. There are even some governments making efforts to minimize air travel too.

Moving into ‘Fair Travel’  

‘An average medium-haul domestic return flight from Bangalore to  Mumbai emits climate pollution (i.e. greenhouse gasses) that neutralizes the benefit of 100 trees – essentially, cut down forever. This can be seen as personally chopping down 1 tree at the end of the return flight, each time we fly’ (ref 2)

Since travel is a major component of IT and Finance/BPO service companies, the Fair Travel program is focused on working with pioneering IT and BPO/finance companies in India through a participatory method called ‘Carbon Reduction Action Groups’ (CRAGs). When successfully employed in global enterprises CRAGs will enable a mixed group of employees to set their own carbon footprint reduction targets, including climate impacts from business-related air travel. These groups will then be able to work toward co-creating their roadmap to achieve these reduction targets. As with Wipro, cBalance’s FairTravel program will provide the necessary training and support to achieve these. FairTravel will also provide carbon footprinting and other decision support, along with communications support for Corporate Sustainability teams to amplify these pioneering efforts. For more details on this program please visit this link. 

For many of us, some of our fondest memories include travelling and some of our greatest achievements include working together to address challenges. Fair Travel is an opportunity to ensure that our collective journey is made up of responsible choices and that we continue to have fond travel memories and satisfying work. We need to begin now. Let’s heal the world and make it a better place for you and for me and the entire human (and non-human) race!

References:

1. Based on independently verified India-specific emissions factors developed by cBalance and audited by Western State Colorado University (WSCU)
2. http://cbalance.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/CB_Wipro_AviationEF_CaseStudy_v5.pdf

Editors: Neesha Noronha, Namratha Sastry, Vivek Gilani

Wipro’s Air Travel Emissions

cBalance has been engaging with Wipro, an Indian Information Technology Services Corporation, to estimate their GHG emissions from air travel since 2015.
The objective of the project has been to estimate GHG emissions from air travel, analyze Wipro’s flying patterns, estimate possible reductions in GHG emissions and recommend strategies to reduce GHG emissions.

The analysis was adhered to GHG Protocol’s Corporate Standard, accompanied by IPCC Guidelines 2006 to calculate airline specific emission factors (insert footnote)

Following the equation:

GHG Emissions = Activity Data  x  Emission Factor

Here, the Activity Data was the distance between Airport A to Airport B, calculated using great circle equation.
Emission factor was given in terms of kg CO2e / pax-km for each airline, distinguished based on whether the flight was International or Domestic and whether the flight was short, medium or long haul (this was determined based on the distance).

View detailed methodology here.

FY 2014-2015 & FY 2015-2016

For FY 2014-2015 estimated GHG emissions were 170.1 thousand tonnes CO2e, with 1,269.8 million pax-km traveled across 5.0 lac flights
For FY 2015-2016 estimated GHG emissions were 152.9 thousand tonnes CO2e, with 1,134.4 million pax-km traveled across 4.7 lac flights

During these two cycle of analysis, other than estimating the GHG emissions from air travel, the major emphasis was on quantifying reduction potential and study reduction strategies. This was achieved by modeling two scenarios :
Best-In-Class Switch :
The goal of this scenario was to determine, for a given flight, the best airline in terms of emission factor ranking for its specified route. This helped us and Wipro quantify reduction potential just by switching over to a more efficient airline.
The estimated GHG emissions reduction from Best-In-Class switch for FY 2014-2015 were 59.9 thousand tonnes CO2e and for FY 2015-2016 were 36.9 thousand tonnes CO2e
Multi-stop to Non-stop Switch :
The goal of this scenario was to determine possible reductions in GHG emissions switching from a multi-stop flight to a non-stop flight.
The estimated GHG emissions reduction from Multi-stop to Non-stop switch for FY 2014-2015 were 19.4 thousand tonnes CO2e and for FY 2015-2016 were 11.7 thousand tonnes CO2e

In total, 79.3 thousand tonnes CO2e and 48.6 thousand tonnes CO2e reductions were estimated respectively for FY 2014-2015 and FY 2015-2016

View emission comparison report between FY 2014-2015 & FY 2015-2016 here.

A white paper titled Reducing Air Travel Emissions can be read here, where we have ranked airlines based on their GHG Emission Factor.

FY 2016-2017 & FY 2017-2018

For FY 2016-2017 estimated GHG emissions were 130.2 thousand tonnes CO2e, with 923.7 million pax-km traveled across 2.1 lac flights
For FY 2017-2018 estimated GHG emissions were 116.5 thousand tonnes CO2e, with 836.8 million pax-km traveled across 1.9 lac flights

Since the recommendations of flying the best-in-class airline, flying non-stop over multi-stop and choosing to travel via railways and/or use video calling services were already implemented, during these cycle only emission estimation was conducted on the business unit level.
For future development, the goal is to implement emissions and a financial budgeting system with respect to flying on a business unit level with the idea that it would create responsible air travel amongst employees.

Details on the Business Units wise emissions for FY 2016-2017 can be viewed here.

Furthermore, click here to view a comparison between Economy vs Business Class emissions between FY 2016-2017 and FY 2017-2018

How Wipro Reduced Air Travel Emissions

Wipro, an Indian IT services multinational company desiring to become greener, commissioned cBalance to calculate its carbon footprint from business air travel so that strategies could be implemented to reduce these emissions. Wipro has an international presence and a wide geographic base and, thus, must use air transport in order to meet the needs of its clients. In the 2013-14 financial year, Wipro reported 103 thousand tons of CO2e GHG emissions from business travel, which was 13% of its total! Here lied a great opportunity for Wipro to substantially reduce its carbon footprint. So we set out to:

• estimate the carbon emissions factors for domestic and international airlines used by Wipro in 2014-15
• estimate a GHG inventory of Wipro’s business air travel based on the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard,
• make a rankings index of domestic and international airline carriers sorted by their GHG emissions factors,
• recommend a best-in-class air carrier for each sector of company air travel,
• model choices that could reduce GHG emissions (choosing the best airline, reducing the number of stops in a journey)

Not only would this be useful for Wipro, the results of the study could be potentially used by the public at large to reduce their own carbon footprints by simply by making the right decision at the time of booking a flight.

Methodology:
The scope of the project covered all airline business travel, international and domestic, of Wipro during the 2014-15 fiscal year: nearly 500,000 flight legs and about 1.3 billion passenger-km traveled. While about 60% of the flights were domestic, over three quarters of the distance traveled was from international flights.

The GHG emissions inventory was taken following the GHG Protocol’s Corporate Standard, which covers the accounting and reporting of the six greenhouse gases following the Kyoto Protocol: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), and requires adherence to the principles of relevance, completeness, consistency, transparency, and accuracy. Only the first three greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), are considered, as emissions of the other three were below the materiality threshold as defined by the ‘completeness’ principle. Operational boundaries have been specified according to the standard, which entails categorizing emissions as either direct or indirect emissions and choosing the scope for indirect emissions. The measured unit of reference flow is passenger-km of air travel and the unit of analysis is Metric Tonne of CO2e.

Wipro provided the raw data set (flights, airport codes, and carrier codes) and collection began by devising and administering a list of data needs identified by the Standard. Domestic short-haul and long-haul flights were defined as shorter and longer than 500 km, respectively, and international short-haul flights as up to 2,000 km, medium-haul flights as between 2,000 and 5,000 km, and long-haul flights as greater than 5,000 km. cBalance corrected errors and invalid entries in these data.

To develop emission factors, LTO (landing/takeoff) and cruise mode emissions were calculated for all aircraft models. Next, best-case per-passenger emission factors for finite distances were derived for every aircraft model (using maximum passenger capacity and load factor of 1). The same was done for additional finite distances on every aircraft model. Then, the per-passenger emissions for finite distances for each airline was calculated by summing the LTO and cruise-mode emissions (accounting for weighted average airline passenger capacities, airline-wide passenger load factors, and passenger to freight ratios). Finally, the same was done for additional finite distances for each airline. Unfortunately, the relative frequency of operation or share of annual passenger-kms performed by a given aircraft model in an airline’s fleet could not be taken into consideration due to the unavailability of the necessary data regarding domestic airline operations. Incorporating such statistics to arrive at a weighted average would provide a more rigorous approach.

Wipro Air Travel Emissions Reduction Case Study PDF

Scenario Modelling:
cBalance also modelled two different scenario comparisons. The first compared the baseline to the best-in-class and found that if international flights were switched to the best-in-class scenario, it would result in savings of 41% of GHG emissions. For all Wipro’s international flights, the total savings would be 70.44 thousand tonnes of CO2e emissions. For domestic US flights, the best-in-class scenario results in 37% savings (7.47 thousand tonnes), and for domestic Indian flights the savings are 20% (3.92 thousand tonnes). The second compared multi-stop to non-stop flights and found that for international flights, 25% savings resulted from using non-stop flights, and for US domestic flights, the savings were 50%.

Conclusions:
From the fourth quarter of the 2015-16 fiscal year to the first quarter of the next, Wipro reduced the number of segments flown by 8.7%, but GHG emissions decreased 30% cumulatively and 23% per segment. Wipro was able to achieve such huge emission reductions by merely flying 7% fewer multi-stop segments and choosing ‘cleaner’ airlines.
Based on these findings, cBalance recommends that if the difference between the two airlines is less than 15%, pick the non-stop flight on the ‘dirtier’ airline instead of a flight on a ‘cleaner’ airline with a layover. If the difference is greater than 15%, on the other hand, pick a flight on a ‘cleaner’ airline with a layover as opposed to a non-stop flight on a ‘dirtier’ airline.

Air travel is a highly unsustainable activity that should be avoided when possible. Companies are pledging to take advantage of the teleconferencing capabilities enabled by our age of high speed internet to avoid unnecessary face-to-face meetings. When it is impossible to avoid such flights, companies and individuals can choose the optimal airline, reduced number of stops, and economy class, to reduce their GHG emissions. Something as easy as picking a non-stop flight can save dozens of kilograms of CO2e emissions. For some perspective on what that means, a large tree breathes about 12 kilos of CO2 a year. This is an easy way to reduce one’s carbon footprint.

View the Project Report here.