NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--To kick-off the busy summer travel season while keeping carbon offsetting top of mind, JetBlue (Nasdaq: JBLU) today announced it will offset the carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) for all JetBlue customers flying throughout the month of June. JetBlue is partnering with Carbonfund.org Foundation, an environmental non-profit organization, to offset CO2 for all scheduled JetBlue flights from June 1 to June 30, 2019.
Over the past 11 years, JetBlue has partnered with Carbonfund.org, allowing travelers to offset an estimation of the ‘carbon footprint’ from their flights by supporting a variety of carbon dioxide reduction projects. To date, JetBlue has purchased offsets totaling more than 2.3 billion pounds (1 million metric tons) of CO2 emissions. Since 2008, JetBlue’s carbon offsets have helped fund technology and forestry projects to help counterbalance the addition of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from flying.
"As an airline, we admit that we emit. Communally, the traveling public’s and airline’s first-line of defense is flying efficiently and avoiding unnecessary emissions,” said Sophia Mendelsohn, head of sustainability and environmental social governance, JetBlue. “Flying remains a backbone of our economy. JetBlue is inspiring our customers by purchasing offsets on their behalf for emissions that cannot be avoided. While we work toward renewable jet fuel options and ‘carbon-neutral’ flying, offsets are one small way we’re addressing emissions."
Offsetting all scheduled customers’ flights throughout June will reduce JetBlue’s flying impact by an estimated 700,000 metric tons of CO2, according to Carbonfund.org. This reduction is accomplished by offsetting CO2 through the Envira Amazonia Tropical Rainforest Conservation Project, a carbon offset project approved by the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standard. These third party verifications demonstrate the project protects nearly 500,000 acres of Amazon tropical rainforest and, mitigates the release of more than 12.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the project lifetime, preserves the habitat for biodiversity and enhances the lives of rural forest communities.
How Can You Get Involved? Offset Your Future Flights – CO2 offsetting can be done by a company or an individual to balance their emissions. JetBlue customers can go to www.carbonfund.org/jetblue to calculate a suggested donation to offset specific flight itineraries. For more information on JetBlue's partnership with Carbonfund.org or carbon offsetting, visit jetblue.com/green/offsetting/.
JetBlue’s Carbon Offsetting Initiatives – JetBlue has a history of offsetting emissions. Since 2008, JetBlue has offset 2.3 billion pounds of CO₂ emissions. In April 2015, JetBlue offset a month of customers’ flight in celebration of Earth Month. In 2014, JetBlue worked with Carbonfund.org to offset the CO2 emissions for an entire year on all A321 flights between San Francisco and New York's JFK Airport.
Beyond June, JetBlue is focused on emissions reduction and avoidance in the long-term. JetBlue recently released its annual environmental social governance (ESG) report detailing the airline’s long-term emissions and climate risk management strategy. The 2018 report is available here.
JetBlue For Good “GreenUp” – Commitment to the Environment - JetBlue depends on natural resources and a healthy environment to keep its business running smoothly. Natural resources are essential for the airline to fly and tourism relies on having beautiful, natural and preserved destinations for customers to visit. The airline focuses on issues that have the potential to impact its business. Customers, crewmembers and community are key to JetBlue's sustainability strategy. Demand from these groups for responsible service is one of the motivations behind ongoing changes that help to reduce the airline’s environmental impact. For more on JetBlue’s environmental initiatives, visit jetblue.com/green.
“GreenUp” is part of JetBlue For Good, the airline’s platform for social impact and corporate responsibility. The initiative encompasses JetBlue’s commitment to the environment. Most recently, in April for Earth Month, JetBlue empowered its customers to join the airline in donating and volunteering with non-profits working to preserve natural spaces. Customers nominated their favorite earth-friendly non-profits for a chance to receive a grant to continue their environmental efforts. When customers nominated their favorite environmental charities, they were automatically entered to have offsets, totaling 3.6 million lbs. of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions (1,632 MT), donated in their name. This represents the average American’s lifetime ‘carbon footprint’ according to Carbonfund.org Foundation.
The grand prize winner of the GreenUp Earth Month grants was Para La Naturaleza in Puerto Rico, which received a grant for $20,000. The three GreenUp runners-up – Clean The World, Tree People and Charles River Watershed Association – each received a $5,000 grant.
About JetBlue
JetBlue is New York's Hometown Airline®, and a leading carrier in Boston, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Los Angeles (Long Beach), Orlando, and San Juan. JetBlue carries more than 42 million customers a year to 100+ cities in the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America with an average of more than 1,000 daily flights. For more information please visit jetblue.com.
About Carbonfund.org Foundation
Carbonfund.org Foundation was founded in 2003 and is a leading US-based nonprofit carbon reduction and climate solutions organization with over 750,000 individual supporters and over 2,000 business and nonprofit partners including JetBlue. In addition, Carbonfund.org has funded over 185 carbon reduction and tree-planting projects across 40+ states and 20+ countries, including the development of several forest conservation projects in Brazil that have attained the industry's highest level of certification. For more information, please visit www.carbonfund.org.
