Time to get over Greenwashing

Time to get over Greenwashing in aviation

By SimpliFlying CEO Shashank Nigam

Sustainability will be one of the biggest communications challenges for airlines postpandemic.

According to a new study by the lobby group Airlines For America, over half of Americans think that aviation is responsible for more than 10% of emissions.

In fact, 15% of survey respondents think that airlines alone account for over 30% of the world’s emissions.

This is alarming on two levels. Firstly, aviation contributes to less than 3% of carbon emissions. Secondly, it seems that the average Joe did not get the memo about all the efforts airlines have been taking of late towards net-zero emissions. Unfortunately, airlines may have themselves to blame for this perception.

Greenwashing galore

Airlines around the world are turning regular announcements into green celebrations. On Earth Day, the US ultralow-cost carrier Frontier came out with a campaign claiming that it is the greenest airline in America.

This was based on the fact that they have some of the newest aircraft and pack the most seats in them, resulting in the lowest emissions per seat.

While that claim is true, Frontier’s executives can’t deny that these decisions were taken years ago to save fuel costs, rather than to take care of the climate.

In its claims to be the greenest airline, Frontier did not share any net-zero emissions goals, announce sustainable aviation fuel flights or ink a carbon offset deal. All assertions were about new engines and slim seats.

Across the Atlantic, SWISS announced a partnership with Google Cloud. It is a typical technology deal to house all the airline’s data on Google’s platform.

Consolidating data from multiple systems will help SWISS better plan which type of aircraft will be most efficient for a particular route, which would ultimately save fuel. But the press release had a sustainability spin in the title, incorrectly signalling to the reader that addressing climate change was the driver of this decision to move to Google Cloud.

In South America, Avianca launched a new program that sends notifications to passengers on overbooked flights to switch to other available flights in exchange for frequent flyer miles.

Proactive communications help both the customer and the airline. But the program was touted as a major push toward sustainability by the airline. Load optimisation and proactive notifications being disguised as sustainability appear far fetched. The vendor powering this technology even calls its platform “GreenLeaf”!

Touting green credentials without sustainability being the driving force behind them is known as greenwashing. Some airlines are ratting hollow cans. Over-communicating about sustainability creates distrust in the industry as a whole. But even airlines that have started to check the box on sustainability measures are not doing it right.

Lack of transparency

When Norse Atlantic announced new flights from Oslo to North America it gave an option for passengers to voluntarily pay to offset their carbon emissions.

When I went through the booking flow, I could pay $6 to offset my emissions from New York to Oslo while flying in “Premium Class”.

The amount didn’t change if I changed my seat to “Economy Lite”.

That’s about US$0.01 per kg of carbon regardless of class flown. For comparison, Bill Gates spends sixty times as much to offset his travels. Moreover, there was no information about where my money was going and if the airline would take a cut. The process didn’t inspire trust.

Across the Pacific, Qantas launched a green tier for its frequent flyer program with much fanfare recently. It allows travellers to purchase carbon offsets using miles for their daily activities, like driving a car and earning miles.

But Qantas didn’t specify which projects the offsets would go toward and when. Moreover, the miles I earn by taking green actions can be redeemed for Qantas flights, which ultimately may increase my carbon footprint, not decrease it. The program needs to be thought out better to be truly appealing.

While some airlines are taking initial steps around sustainability, they are rough around the edges. All of these put airline communications teams on the back foot when it comes to communicating about sustainability. viability of airlines will soon depend on their sustainability efforts.

Yet, there are very few airlines that are taking the big steps and communicating them well among stakeholders.

United Airlines has invested in electric aviation and does a great job around visionary storytelling, with its CEO Scott Kirby leading from the front.

Alaska Airlines introduced boxed water and its customer satisfaction ratings went up. Fiji Airways has a conservation program that saves the habitats of endangered turtles - something that appeals to its clientele in the South Pacific. Delta Air Lines and JetBlue have both been flying carbon neutral throughout the pandemic thanks to carbon offsets.

Yet, it seems that very few Americans know about these measures. So it’s not that airlines are not taking steps toward reducing emissions.

There is a significant knowledge gap and travellers need to be educated urgently. Radical transparency needs to come through in all communication efforts. Hence, sustainability will need to be a top priority for the C-Suite as well as the Communications teams at airlines going forward.

Rebuilding trust in travel

In a recent conversation I had on my sustainability podcast with Etihad boss, Tony Douglas, he asserted that the commercial Shashank Nigam is the CEO of SimpliFlying and the host of the podcast “Sustainability in the Air” featuring interviews with industry CEOs.