With the start of 2020 upon us, it’s crucial now more than ever to take sustainability seriously. We know a lot about what polluters are contributing to climate change: the farming industry, cars, power plants. But what you might have not guessed is that airline travel is also causing damage to our planet. According to the New York Times, “Greenhouse gas emissions from commercial air travel are growing at a faster clip than predicted in previous, already dire, projections, according to new research — putting pressure on airline regulators to take stronger action as they prepare for a summit next week. The United Nations aviation body forecasts that airplane emissions of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas. It will reach just over 900 million metric tons in 2018, and then triple by 2050”.
According to Popular Mechanics, if you’re taking a round-trip, economy-class flight from New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX), for example, you’re adding more than 1,200 pounds of CO2 to the atmosphere. We can begin to recycle, we can eat less meat, we can take public transit. But what is there to do to offset traveling? In an era where the world is more connected than ever, FlyGRN, a new booking app, is offering something different.
What Is FlyGRN?
FlyGRN is a flight search engine that automatically offsets (part of) the CO2 emissions of your flight for free. They pay the CO2 offsets with the fee they receive for each sold ticket. According to FlyGRN, they have similar prices as other flight ticket sites. In some cases, even cheaper. They offset the emissions by investing in solar panels in India. FlyGRN’s revenue goes to the installation of two solar power plants in Tamil Nadu and Telangana, India. That greenhouse gas-free solar power is exported to India’s regional grid system and replaces more than 200 million pounds of CO2 per year.
If you buy a flight somewhere else online, you can simply put in your email on their website and you’ll get a certificate that guarantees the offset.
While you’re here, check out the eight yoga poses to do while you’re traveling.
