How can we combine flying – in our modern day often a necessity – and sustainability? In a lot cases, we're aware that it is best not to emit any CO₂ at all. In a lot of the other cases our life may not permit this freedom, we may have to fly back home for a family emergency, take a commuter flight to our university town or make a long-distance relationship work. For those cases, we've made Flyla the most carbon-conscious way to book a flight: We're the first OTA where reducing the impact of the negative externality of Flying is baked into the process at no extra cost or effort to the consumer.
Specifically, we are pursuing two different projects:
On the one hand, we plant between one and three trees for every flight booked through our platform, thus actively contributing to climate protection. Eden Reforestation Projects, one of the leading and most reliable NGOs in the field of reforestation, is joining forces with us in this effort.
Many companies would pat themselves on the back after this step and leave it at that. But that's not enough for us. To avoid impacting our climate as much as possible, we fully and automatically compensate the CO₂ emissions of every flight booked with us. We do this in partnership with Squake. Therefore, booking with Flyla means you're using the most carbon-conscious approach.
What does carbon compensation mean?
Carbon compensation is about reducing the impact of negative externalities created by flying – more concretely the emitted carbon. While we don't have other affordable alternative fuels for flying we need to ensure that the CO₂ emissions that are generated are compensated elsewhere.
Flyla meets Eden Reforestation Projects
Eden Reforestation pursues projects in various parts of the world to sequester CO₂. Current projects can be found in Ethiopia, Madagascar, Nepal, Indonesia, and Mozambique. Local people and nature benefit from valuable projects and healthy, sustainable development.
Eden Reforestation Projects contribute to positive development in the respective regions by giving people affected by extreme poverty a job and a task by planting millions of trees.
Healthy forests are created that store CO₂ in the long term. In five countries, more than 260 million trees have already been planted and more than 2.6 million working days have been created. So by planting trees, multidimensional added value is created, which FLYLA uses to generate positive social chain reactions as a company.
We plant between one and three trees for every flight booked. All this is completely free of charge for our users. We will publish the number of trees planted on each of the flight booking confirmations. More information can be found on the Eden website. We calculate the number of trees to be planted based on the flight distance. You can find an example of the calculation here:
We have already planted thousands of trees with Eden Reforestation Projects. For CO₂ compensation with our partner First Climate, we use an emissions calculator to determine the exact emissions of all air travel sold. Flying with Flyla means flying CO₂ neutral.
Our Project in India
To offset unavoidable CO₂ emissions, we support a Verified Carbon Standard (VCS)-certified wind power project in the Indian state of Gujarat, which helps avoid greenhouse gas emissions from the generation of coal-fired power and reduces local air pollution. The project saves the amount of CO₂ generated by the air travel we arrange and by our business operations. The project is certified by the internationally recognized Verified Carbon Standard and the emission savings achieved are regularly verified and confirmed by independent experts.
Sustainable Development Goals
What are the Sustainable Development Goals? The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are a United Nations objective to ensure a better and more sustainable future for all people on the planet. They are about nothing less than addressing the global challenges of our time: climate change, poverty, inequality, and justice.
Since the above-mentioned challenge areas are interconnected, the 17 goals are also complementary and are to be achieved by 2030.
Which SDGs do we actively support?
As part of our collaborations with Eden Reforestation and First Climate, we are making an active, multidimensional contribution to moving a small but important step closer to the SGDs goals.
First of all, every flight booked through Flyla is 100% carbon neutral and is even overcompensated by our tree planting program. At the same time, our partnerships create multidimensional added value for people and nature.
Our partners demonstrably create well-paid jobs. These in turn trigger a variety of chain reactions, such as the reduction of extreme poverty and hunger. Increasing economic activity correlates with improved gender equality and health, as well as decreasing inequality. Likewise, economic growth is the key to better education and education is the key to a more sustainable and better future. Our reforestation projects improve living conditions for people and the environment, as well as promote rural living.
We are very pleased to partner with Eden Reforestation Projects and First Climate and hope to convince other companies to support similar projects. Because only together can we achieve the Climate Protection and Sustainable Development Goals and also provide a good future for our children and our children's children.
If you have any further questions about this important topic, please feel free to contact us at franziska@flyla.com.