Air Canada teams with Less Emissions to offset environmental impact of flights

Air Canada has partnered with Canadian offset provider Less Emissions to offer carbon offsets to individuals and organizations wanting to reduce the environmental impact of their flights.

Less Emissions, has been ranked as the highest quality offset provider by the David Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute, a Canadian non-profit think tank focused on energy.

Through Less Emissions, customers can calculate and purchase offsets to help mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their air travel.

To access the program, Air Canada customers will receive a link to Less Emissions at the bottom of their travel confirmation receipt. After inputting the origin and destination of their flight into the online Less Emissions calculator, customers can select one of two options to lessen their flight’s environmental impact:

International Gold Standard certified offsets: Derived from international projects meeting the Gold Standard Foundation’s sustainable development criteria, as endorsed by leading environmental groups including WWF International.

Canadian VER+ certified offsets: Sourced from projects located in Canada that have achieved certification under the VER+ Standard, a globally recognized standard for voluntary GHG emissions reductions projects.

To reduce its emissions, Air Canada has adopted a four-pillar strategy that includes large investments in building a young, fuel-efficient fleet. This has helped the company improve fuel efficiency by 40 per cent between 1990 and 2016.

Air Canada’s strategy also includes supporting the development of a local industry for sustainable alternative aviation fuel that have a lower life-cycle carbon footprint than today’s jet fuels. One example is Air Canada’s participation as an airline partner in Canada’s Biojet Supply Chain Initiative (CBSCI), a three-year collaborative project that began in 2015 with 14 stakeholder organizations to introduce biojet into the shared fuel system at a Montreal airport. The CBSCI project is a first in Canada and is aimed at creating a sustainable Canadian supply chain of biojet.