Green Flying

By: Sandra Stoner

As I packed and got things ready for my upcoming Thanksgiving weekend trip to Germany, I started thinking about how environmentally unfriendly airplanes are. We are told often that planes are the worse mode of transportation with regards to the environment, and yet here I was, a self-proclaimed environmentalist, planning a trip that used an airplane for over 8000 miles.

It has been documented that for every mile of air travel, a plane releases .97 pounds of CO2 emissions per passenger. This is beat only by sports utility vehicles and the average car being driven by a solo driver. Using this information I calculated that my trip to Nuremberg will make me personally responsible for releasing roughly 3,880 pounds of CO2 emissions each way!

It is no surprise then that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that airplanes are responsible for 3.5% of global warming, and that by 2050 they could be responsible for up to 15%.

Scary statistics, huh? Too bad they aren’t stopping me, or over 750 million other US passengers, from flying every year. I know- it’s just so convenient to leave Chicago at 4 in the afternoon and be in Harrisburg, PA with my family eating dinner at 7. Not to mention it would be awfully difficult to get to Germany if I didn’t take the plunge and fly.

So after thinking this all through, I decided to change direction and try to discover just what the airline industry is doing to green their approach. Here is what I found:

Continental Airlines has replaced most of their fleet with more environmentally friendly planes. As a result, they are 35% more fuel efficient for passenger miles than they were in 1997. They also have reduced their ground emissions by 75% by using electric-powered equipment. Lastly, they are part of LEEDS, which is dedicated to environmentally friendly buildings.


In 2007 Lufthansa had reduced CO2 emissions by 30.3% below 1991 levels. The company also has an environmental strategy with many set goals and targets to reach.

Virgin Atlantic has already completed a flight using biofuel. Even more inspiring, since 2006 the company has used all of its profits to research and develop alternative fuels.

These are just a few airlines that stand out in terms of environmental research, but it appears as if most of them are trying to do their part. Even more exciting, just a few days ago (Nov. 19th, 2008), MIT won a contract to “design quiet, more energy efficient, and more environmentally friendly commercial airplanes” from NASA. So hopefully that UN prediction that airplanes will be responsible for 15% of CO2 emissions by 2050 will be wrong!