Air Travel Info
Air travel, although convenient, is the least energy efficient way to travel - the CO2 emissions from air travel account for approximately 3.5 percent of all CO2 emissions worldwide.
If you must fly there are ways to mitigate your impact.
Take Direct Flights whenever possible - non stop flights are significantly more efficient than those with layovers.
Combine Trips if Possible You quite often may have no control over this, but whenever possible try to combine trips together. While this may at first seem contradictory to the first tip, if a choice between several return journeys back and forth for multiple trips, or several shorter flights combining multiple meetings or events that ultimately returns you to home base, the latter is most likely going to win out.
Choose your carrier carefully - When you use our calculator you will find wide variations of the CO2 emissions among carriers by route. This is highly dependent upon the age of the aircraft and its engine type and age. Newer engines are significantly more efficient.
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Factors we analyze with the TravelinGreen calculator ? Our aim is to build the most accurate CO2 Emissions calculator for you to use to compare your options. For air travel we consider the airline schedule, aircraft equipment for each flight, fuel burn rates, mileage flown, the number of seats, the space allocated for seats in each cabin, and passenger and cargo load factors.
Carbon emissions can be calculated for a one-way trip or a round trip.
RFI ?The TravelinGreen carbon calculator determines the base amount of carbon dioxide (CO2)for your trip. However, scientists estimate the overall impact of aircraft emissions at high altitudes to be two to five times greater than the effect of CO2 alone (including that of car or train travel), according to different studies conducted on this issue. By definition, radiative forcing is the change in radiation levels at the earth's surface due to greenhouse gas emissions. Many carbon calculators account for CO2 emissions only. This gives a conservative indication of the potential impact of aviation emissions on global climate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommends a RFI factor of 2.7. The UK Government Department DEFRA has recommended that an RFI of 1.9 be employed for the purposes of carbon footprinting. At present there is good scientific evidence to suggest using an RFI value of 2.0 as a minimum. For more information on RFI, please visit the IPCC and the World Resources Institute Web sites
