Lufthansa Group has launched a “sustainability platform” that allows travellers to track and offset their individual carbon footprint with the purchase of sustainable aviation fuel.
Developed through the Lufthansa Innovation Hub, Compensaid combines a tracking tool for flights across all airlines worldwide with the ability to directly offset passengers’ personal CO2 emissions.
Travellers can receive a detailed evaluation of their entire travel history, which includes flight distance, time and destinations, as well as the efficiency of the aircraft type, individual fuel consumption and the associated CO2 emissions.
Users then have two options for offsetting – including, for the first time, replacing fossil aviation fuels one-to-one with sustainable alternatives. The platform calculates the market-based surcharge in comparison to kerosene. Travellers willing to pay the surcharge can use it to cover their individual fuel consumption with the climate-neutral alternative. Lufthansa Group will continue to pay the basic rate for kerosene, but the sustainable fuel purchased as part of the offsetting process will be deployed on Lufthansa flights within a period of six months.
Alternatively, passengers can choose to use their offsetting charge to support a reforestation project in Nicaragua. This reduces CO2 emissions over the long term.
Compensaid’s first partner is the Swiss climate protection foundation myclimate, which is a long-term carbon offsetting partner of Lufthansa Group. The company will also work with the Corporate Fuel Management of the group, with its fuel experts purchasing certified alternative fuels globally and supply it to Lufthansa flight operations.
Gleb Tritus, MD of Lufthansa Innovation Hub, said: “Flying benefits our world in many different ways – it connects people, helps bridge cultural divides, intensifies business relations and enables interactions to take place across long distances. But flying also has negative climate effects, which need to be counteracted – not least from a digital perspective. Every individual traveller can take action; with Compensaid, we provide people with a tool that shows them the climate effects of their flights. This impact can be reduced significantly with the help of innovative technologies such as sustainable fuel.”
Thorsten Luft, head of fuel management at Lufthansa Group, added: “Sustainable aviation fuel is a groundbreaking way to produce sustainable kerosene. We are delighted to support Compensaid, an innovative platform that for the first time enables customers to invest in CO2-neutral fuel for their flights.”
Lufthansa Group is in the process of modernising the long-haul fleets of its airlines, replacing older aircraft with newer, more fuel-efficient models.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa will be joined by Robert Stevens from ClimateCare at a BBT Editor's Lunch taking place on 9 October at the Royal Automobile Club in London to discuss how travel buyers can factor climate initiatives into their strategy for sourcing the best air content for their programme.
compensaid.de