Virgin Atlantic is committed to reducing our environmental impacts where we can by becoming a more efficient business, leading the industry to practical and technical solutions and engaging, inspiring and empowering our staff and customers to help us meet this challenge.
IN THE AIR
Virgin Atlantic is continuing to evaluate more efficient ways of operating our existing fleet of aircraft, until the manufacturers can develop technological solutions to reducing carbon emissions such as innovative aircraft design or viable alternative fuels.
Our partnership with Boeing - we have partnered with Boeing to help us in our quest to become the most sustainable airline in the world. We ordered 15 787-9 Dreamliners in April, which burn around 27% less fuel per passenger than the A340-300 they will replace. We will also be doing a biofuel demonstration with Boeing, Virgin Fuels and engine maker GE Aviation during 2008 which will be the first worldwide by a commercial airline.
Innovation - as well as the starting grids project, which was announced by Sir Richard last year, Virgin Atlantic has many other initiatives underway which will enable us to operate our existing fleet of aircraft in a more fuel efficient and sustainable way. Several of these projects have been born out of the work undertaken in collaboration with the airport operators and manufacturers for the Starting Grids proposal. We are also working with stakeholders to improve the availability and reliability of "fixed electrical ground power" (electricity supplied to the aircraft at the gate from a central airport system) rather than relying on running the aircraft's auxiliary power units and burning substantial quantities of fuel in order to run the air conditioning and onboard electrical systems whilst on the ground. Together with technical solutions such as new engine washing systems, these will contribute to carbon emissions reductions of tens of thousands of tonnes this year alone.
Putting our planes on a diet - We've also been working hard to remove any extraneous weight from our aircraft. Weight (and the fuel needed to fly it around) is now a key consideration in developing new onboard products and services, and finding lighter-weight alternatives to existing materials can add up to considerable emissions reductions over the course of a year.
Fairtrade tea and coffee onboard all flights - Virgin Atlantic will be offering Fairtrade teas and coffees to passengers onboard all flights. Following a series of blind tastings of a variety of Fairtrade teas and coffees, Virgin Atlantic has chosen to offer its passengers organic green and white teas from QI teas, coffee by specialist supplier FFI UK and a range of organic and Fairtrade teas from Clipper. In 2006 we served nearly seven million cups of coffee and over five million cups of tea onboard flights so a switch to these products will be a significant boost to the Fairtrade market.
Other initiatives - Where Virgin Atlantic can't have a direct impact on reducing our emissions and environmental footprint, we're working closely with other sectors of the industry to develop models of best practice that can be adopted globally. Initiatives such as "Continuous Descent Approach" need the cooperation of many different companies and organisations, but we're confident that they will allow us to operate our aircraft even more efficiently in the not-too-distant future.
ON THE GROUND
All of the electricity we purchase to run our key office sites is from renewable sources and we are looking into extending this across all of our ground operations. Virgin Atlantic has a well-established recycling scheme at all of our office locations and ensures that waste from our engineering facilities is disposed of in the appropriate manner. The emphasis on sustainability and efficiency is not limited to our aircraft operations, however. In conjunction with Envirowise (which gives Government-funded advice to businesses) we are undertaking a wide-ranging review of our ground operations and identifying opportunities to reduce our environmental impact. During 2007 we will be identifying robust targets for improving energy efficiency, reducing waste and consumption of resources such as paper and water, and engaging staff and customers in embedding sustainability at the core of our business.
We are also developing a comprehensive sustainable procurement policy which will be rolled out to key suppliers in 2007.
