March 1, 2005 – Recent concern over transportation related global warming impacts from greenhouse gas emissions has resulted in various carbon mitigation programs being launched in the U.S. and Europe to offset these impacts. However, the question is: Does anyone care?

U.S.-based Sustainable Travel International (STI) teamed up with the Anavo Group consulting firm to survey business and leisure travelers and assess their understanding of and interest in purchasing “carbon offsets” to neutralize the greenhouse gas emissions from their air travel.

Offsetting greenhouse gas emissions is a straightforward process. Payments from the purchase of carbon offset are used to invest in environmentally friendly projects such as planting trees or investing in renewable energy that reduce future carbon production, such as installing solar panels in developing countries to replace energy from crude oil, for example.

Anavo and STI designed the survey to be both informative and thought provoking, introducing survey participants to a few facts before asking a series of questions: travel accounts for one third of world wide climate damaging emissions, and air travel is fastest growing contributor to global warming. The results of the survey* are eye opening, and help to reinforce a new travel related carbon offset initiative in the U.S. called MyClimate™.

Based on an average airline ticket of $300, an overwhelming 94.7% of respondents said they were willing to be charged between $5-50 more for their ticket in order to mitigate the greenhouse gas impacts from their air travel. The greatest percentage of respondents (27.7%) claimed that they would pay up to $20 more for their ticket. Interestingly enough, that’s more than it would cost to offset the average flight.

When the participants who claim that they are environmentally conscientious were filtered out, leaving only the non-environmentally conscientious responder, it was discovered that 83.3% of respondents would pay between $5-50 more for their ticket in order to mitigate the greenhouse gas effects of air travel.

Of the people that book through travel agencies, the majority of respondents (45%) said they would be willing to switch to travel agencies that provide full or partial off-setting of emissions if their were little or no additional costs. Travel agents, in turn, would voluntarily donate a portion of their service fee to MyClimate™, for example, as a type of ’cause marketing’ campaign

When asked if consumers would be willing to switch to online travel booking agencies (such as Orbitz, Travelocity, and Expedia) that provide full or partial off-setting of emissions at little or no additional cost, an overwhelming 89.9% of respondents said they would switch. It should be noted that 6.3% of respondents said they do not use online booking sites.

“Based on these results,” explains STI Vice President Peter D. Krahenbuhl, “online booking agencies that offer this type of service would gain considerable competitive advantage and market differentiation. Also, STI’s MyClimate™ business model is based on revenue sharing, so travel providers who participate in our program can increase their revenue as well.”

In gathering information on business interest in sponsoring carbon offsets, results were fairly consistent, albeit – just a bit more skeptical. A majority of the respondents (44.7%) said that they thought their business would be willing to pay an additional $5-10 per plane ticket if their emissions are mitigated. This indicates that companies are concerned about being perceived as environmentally conscientious and are interested in increasing their brand value.

“Companies that already pursue this type of cause marketing,” Krahenbuhl continues, “often do so with a higher return on their investment than through traditional marketing outlets.” Research like the survey undertaken by STI and Anavo clearly shows that both consumers and therefore businesses are basing their purchasing decisions on their values.


To review the full survey summary analysis and to learn more about carbon offsetting, visit <http://elog.relevanttools.com/eis-cgi-bin/elog2?s=1356&m=050228.1153.0001&a mp;e=pedal@passport.ca&u=4>www.my-climate.com.

*Note: Surveyed travelers were broken down into four major categories: business vs. leisure travelers, and environmentally conscious vs. non-environmentally conscious consumers. Survey results vary slightly for each subcategory.