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Qantas gives airline passengers one more option: carbon offset

Posted Sep 24th 2007 2:40PM by Tom Barlow (RSS feed)
Filed under: Products and Services, Industry, Next Big Thing

Aisle or window? Coach or business class? Carbon offset or enemy of the environment?

In another step forward for the hot new carbon offset industry, Australian airlines Qantas (OTC:QUBSF) and its low-fare carrier Jetstar have launched a program that allows its passengers to buy carbon offsets to compensate for the CO2 emissions of their flight. Travelers can use the carbon calculator to figure out the emissions and cost of offsetting the pollution. For example, a flight from Bangkok to Los Angeles would emit 0.438 tons of C02 per passenger, which could be offset for $5.26 AUD.

Other ways you could offset this amount (pdf) of CO2 include:

Replace one 100-watt light bulb with a 18-watt fluorescent for 2 1/2 years
Replace your refrigerator with a high-efficiency model
Plant a Douglas fir tree for every four flights

Some experts question the impact such programs have on the CO2 problem, but it should serve to answer critics of the airlines. To publicize the program, Qantas vowed to plant 90,000 eucalyptus trees in Australia.

I'm seeing lots of buzz about carbon offsets that leads me to believe the idea is rapidly gaining traction, although most vendors seem to be private companies. Keep an eye peeled for publicly held companies jumping into this market as retailers.

via Gadling