Brett Godfrey tells it the way is on climate change

Brett Godfrey, CEO of Virgin Blue, spoke passionately at the National Tourism and Transport Climate Change Forum yesterday, with Brett perhaps viewed by some as poacher turned gamekeeper, but it was interesting to see him on the podium, as airlines accused of being one of the worst causes of climate change.

Read about what he had to say…………

It was very appropriate that TTF was taking an industry lead on this major issue, which was not going to go away and had to be addressed and that 20 years ago when he set out on my career in tourism and aviation climate change meant leaving Melbourne for a holiday in Surfers Paradise, because it was too cold in Melbourne.

In the past the whole tourism picture had been about promoting Australian tourism and not preserving it and we have now come the full circle with the need now to preserve and promote Australian tourism or there would be little left to promote in the future.

He believed that this was the challenge for this generation and that we had only one shot at it and that Virgin Blue had become focussed on what it could do to contribute and more than that, had become a catalyst for change.

He added that there is no doubt that the environment is in danger and that airlines were part of that problem, but that key tourism destinations are also in danger and whose fault is it and whose responsibility is it to clean it all up and the answer is everyone, from tourism operators to airlines and Governments.

Making the decision about doing something about climate change had been the easiest Virgin Blue had since it started and he based it on the advice of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and several thousand scientists around the world, with dissenters getting less and less, in addition to the cost of getting it right actually relatively minimal.

Business has not really focussed in the past on climate change but that has changed and has now been taken firmly on board by global business leaders, mainly because public opinion and public discontent is going to drive behaviour and if governments, companies and even tourism businesses or destinations do not change and adapt, Brett guaranteed that someone else would and the bottom line is they will get the business – the consumer is king.

Virgin Blue has recently launched the Virgin Blue is turning green campaign because we felt the need to take not what we saw as a leadership role but what we call a catalyst role, because we don’t care who jumps on the bandwagon as long as they do and the whole concept is that we need to get people off their a***s and really thinking about this issue.

The debate is really over though as there are not too many smart people who have not embraced this, but the time now is for action and it is not easy, certainly for an airline to hold their hands up, but it makes good business sense and will make more business sense as it moves forward, using the carrot approach, not regulation and the profitability aims of businesses will drive the development of new technology to help us.

Fuel accounts for 30% of the cost base of all the airlines throughout the world whereas five years ago it was only 10%, so this is a massive incentive for our airlines to find the commercial advantage by reducing fuel burn, including finding alternative sources or types of fuel such ethanol.

In Virgin Blue’s case he said his competitors were flying old technology but Virgin Blue was investing a ton of money in the latest technology to get their footprint down.

In terms of air traffic control, while Australia is leading in this area, with Flexitrack, but globally holding patterns, inefficient routing and political issues absorbed 12% of all aviation fuel, that is 73 million tonnes of fuel wasted every year, when it could simply be dealt with more efficiently.  

He said that meant that technically there were the equivalent of 45 Virgin Blues around the world p****ng away fuel and this is predominantly because of a political lack of willingness to change.

We pay some $500,000 a year for the carbon footprint that we create by our staff flying and our aircraft have been painted with a new paint called Permagard which means we do not have to wash our aircraft as they get washed when they fly through clouds, saving hundred of thousands of litres of water a year a very hot topic in Australia.  We even report our carbon footprint as part of our reporting process.

If we sit on the fence and do nothing we will be regulated, so let’s all do something before that happens because Climate Change is a fact and something to which everyone contributes and it is up to us to decide to do something about it.

To help put aviation’s contribution in perspective, while not defending it, all transport in Australia is 15% of output, with aviation only 1% so we are not the contributor that we are though to be and that has been overstated, but this provides some balance and context to the argument, about which we are doing something now.

In an exclusive interview with The Mole Brett said that he hoped that other airlines would take on what Virgin Blue was doing, because it was almost moronic if they did not, irrespective of what type of airline they were, even the LCC’s.

Brett Godfrey is no poacher turned gamekeeper and is not seeking any accolades, but he has though recognised this is the one opportunity we all have to contribute and make a real difference to global climate change and he urges you to join him.

Report by The Mole from the National Tourism and Transport Climate Change Forum