Intrepid extends offset
A report in Business Day says that Intrepid Travel has decided to extend the trial period of its mandatory carbon offset program for air tickets until the end of the year.
“We’re not hitting the figures we’d like to be,” said Lisa Patterson, carbon offset manager for Intrepid, even so, air travel purchases have picked up enough in recent months, particularly in May, to continue the experiment.
Intrepid started the program in January, becoming the first travel group in Australia to charge an offset for all flights purchased with them, with Virgin Blue now also offering passengers the option to buy carbon offsets.
“Hopefully one day it’ll just be a natural decision that when you book that flight you also tick that (offset) box or choose to go with a company … that has already worked it all out for you,” Ms Patterson said.
“People have to realise that when they do make a decision to buy a flight to travel somewhere that it just does have consequences.”
Just how much to offset is a contentious issue, for instance, Intrepid charges customers $37 extra on a return flight from Melbourne to Fiji, using calculations provided by Origin Energy, while Virgin Blue’s additional fee would be $13.
The former figure took more fully into account the greater warming impact of carbon dioxide emitted at high altitude, Ms Patterson said.
So far, Intrepid had bought offsets for 5150 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of taking 1300 cars off the road for a year, she said.
Intrepid has paid an average of about $13 per tonne offset, with the money allocated by Origin Energy for projects including tree planting and destruction of methane gas.
“I’ve got every confidence that things can only get better, and the feedback we’ve got … is just really brilliant,” Ms Patterson said.
More information from www.intrepidtravel.com
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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