Heathrow confirms
it will seek to become one of the first major airports to have a carbon neutral
infrastructure. The London airport hopes to have reached it’s target of zero
carbon emissions by the mid 2030’s. This news follows the recent investment of
over £100 million to improve energy efficiency and generate renewable energy.
At this
present moment, Heathrow has reduced carbon emissions from it’s airport
buildings and infrastructure by 93% since 1990. Heating is one of the elements that
makes up the remaining 7% of airport infrastructure emissions. However, this
remaining 7% will be offset through tree planting projects in Indonesia and
Mexico. The offsetting projects are certified through the Verified Carbon
Standard.
Heathrow
are also placing focus on gaining momentum on existing targets for 2020. These
include sustainable transport links and meeting targets to transition all
Heathrow vans and cars to electric and plug-in hybrid.
Understandably,
the above-mentioned figures do not include the greater impact from the aircraft
which use the airport each day. To battle the wider problem, London Heathrow
will need airlines to also make greater commitments to lower carbon emissions. The
plans at Heathrow follow the recent statement from the UK aviation industry to
achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
“Our sights are now set on working with the global aviation industry to deliver on net-zero by 2050, at the latest. We can and will cut the environmental cost of flying while keeping the benefits of travel for future generations.”
John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow chief executive.
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Creative Resins has been at the forefront of decorative glass technology for over 30 years. When Louise contacted us to help with a trip to Oman, we discovered that the company had been using an airline’s website to book direct, paying in excess of £5,000 per trip in Business Class. Using our negotiated fares on this one flight YourTravel saved over £1000 per trip. Upon further investigation and a year’s great relationship, we delved into the companies travel policies and booking habits. We found that travel was often booked at the last minute and there was no one in authority to keep a watchful eye over what was being booked and where. We then worked with Louise to create passenger profiles for all of Creative Resins travellers including details such as preferred seat numbers, meals and airlines – we also set in place cabin restrictions (who can and can’t travel in an upgraded travel class). We then looked at the company’s calendar for the coming year, estimating when and where they would need to book travel and agreed that Your Travel would be proactive in trying to get confirmed travel dates from 4 weeks prior to the trip dates. This created a stress-free booking system that took budget and organisational pressure from the senior management, knowing they would always be working with a cost-effective travel budget. This lead to a reduced travel spend of just over 16% without cost-cutting and maintaining a high level of service.
‘’Working with Your Travel Corporate has been an enlightening experience, we were wasting money on travel and working with John and the team was very easy indeed. Everything is taken care of on every trip and we get a level of service that just can’t be achieved by the bigger travel agents, being treated as a valued client and not just another customer is fantastic!’’ Louise Bollom, Director