As announced this week at Air Cargo Europe, Finnair Cargo will in the coming months launch a new service for Cargo customers called Push for Change.
Push for Change has been successfully rolled out in 2019 by Finnair's passenger business in response to demands from customers who wish to mitigate some of the environmental impacts of flying.
The new environmental programme enables air cargo customers to financially support emissions reduction projects or buy biofuel commensurate with where their cargo has flown and its weight, all on a voluntary basis.
Giving customers the choice whether to offset CO2 emissions by supporting a carbon dioxide reduction project or reduce emissions by contributing to the purchase of biofuel is unqiue in the airline industry.
Moreover, unlike many other services, customers can buy the service at the time of booking, after their shipment has arrived at its destination or even while it is en route via the Finnair Cargo Push for Change website which will be launched shortly.
To participate in the biofuel and offsetting programme Finnair Cargo customers will only have to know the weight of their cargo and where it has been transported, but of course the decision on how much to invest and when is entirely up to individual customers.
To support an emissions reduction project:
Europe (€0.01 per kg of cargo)
Intercontinental (€0.03 per kg of cargo)
Europe+Intercontinental (€0.04 per kg of cargo)
To invest in biofuel:
Europe (€0.09 per kg of cargo)
Intercontinental (€0.31 per kg of cargo)
Europe+Intercontinental (€0.40 per kg of cargo)
CO2 emissions reduction projects
Donations towards CO2 offsetting go in full currently to an emissions reduction project in Mozambique, and in April two new agreements were announced with Compensate and Snowchange Cooperative that will also support projects in Finland. The target is to bring these options into the Push for Change service in 2019.
Mozambique. Finnair is partnering with NEFCO – a body established by the Nordic governments to finance sustainable green growth and climate projects – on a programme that is introducing clean and more fuel-efficient cook stoves. Expanding access to fuel-efficient cooking stoves reduces the use of wood charcoal, slowing down deforestation for Mozambique communities. It also helps prevent against smoke inhalation and frees up time for the women and girls who collect the wood and do the cooking. On top of this, the project supports the conservation of carbon sinks, which are natural reservoirs that store carbon-containing chemical compounds.
Compensate is a non-profit foundation that was established in 2018 and its purpose is to fight climate change by offering consumers the possibility to begin living a carbon negative life and offset their everyday purchases at the time of sale. Compensate directs 100% of the payments to various projects that reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, such as carbon sink projects. Currently, one of the most efficient ways to capture carbon is reforestation and protecting existing forests.
Snowchange Cooperative is a Finnish non-profit science and nature conservation organisation, with projects in Siberia, Greenland, Canada, Alaska and Finland. For the past 20 years, Snowchange has been combatting climate change through research, restoration and rewilding. Through Finnair’s Push for Change service, customers can support its Landscape Rewilding Programme for Finnish marshmires, bogs and wetlands. The wetlands and marshmires of the boreal forests are comparable to the rainforests of Amazon, and critical for preserving northern biodiversity.
An important criterion for Finnair is that the emissions reduction can be reliably verified in all included projects.
Biofuel
For biofuel, Finnair is partnering with SkyNRG. The Dutch company is the global market leader for sustainable aviation fuel.
Finnair is part of an initiative with SkyNRG, Shell, World Energy, San Francisco Airport and several other air carriers that aims to lay the foundations for a more long-term and reliable supply chain for sustainable aviation fuels. This will help to support the industry’s common targets for CO2 emission reduction.
The flights flown by Finnair with biofuel will be determined by demand for the new service from Finnair and Finnair Cargo customers. Biofuel has a reduction potential of 60-80% compared to conventional jet fuel, but its price is currently three to five times more expensive than conventional jet fuel.
The biofuel is made from used cooking oil in Los Angeles, California, therefore, it is natural that Finnair will fly biofuel flights from California, either San Francisco or Los Angeles.
Finnair's focus on biofuel has been evolving for a while now. To mark the certification of biofuel for commercial use in 2011, Finnair flew a couple of test flights run entirely on biofuel. These were followed in 2014 with a high-profile biofuel flight to the UN Climate Summit in New York carrying several Nordic Heads of States.
Further information
When Push for Change is live on our website we will announce it in a bulletin and by email. To receive an email please sign up here. You can also contact Finnair Cargo marketing and sustainability manager, Milla Nyholm.
To check your flight’s emissions you may contact cargo.comms@finnair.com and for information about calculation principles you can visit this page of the Finnair website and read the ‘How we calculate’ section.