Book a Flight and This App Will Offset Your CO2 Emissions for Free
Flying doesn’t come cheap-for your wallet or the planet. If you’re taking a round-trip, economy-class flight from New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX), for example, you’re adding more than 1,200 pounds of CO2 to the atmosphere, per calculations from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Airlines, for their part, are beginning to reduce those emissions through various avenues. Delta, for example, has partnered with The Nature Conservancy to show you the approximate environmental impact of your flight and offer an option to donate to various forest protection projects to offset the damage done. The same goes for United’s Eco-Skies CarbonChoice program, which has teamed up with Sustainable Travel International.
In fact, international airlines must offset extra carbon emissions by 2021, per a resolution passed by the United Nations last year. So important progress is being made.
But taking carbon offsetting into your own hands can be a bit confusing, and arranging air travel is already cumbersome as is. That’s why a new flight booking app, FlyGRN, aims to simplify the process-for free.
FlyGRN crawls several ticketing sites to find the best flight options at the lowest prices, just like other aggregators. The difference? After you find a flight you like and book it, FlyGRN takes a cut from that particular ticketing site and then uses it to partially or completely offset your flight’s carbon emissions by investing in solar panels in India-and it doesn't cost you a dime.
Here’s a quick video that shows how it works:
FlyGRN’s revenue goes to the installation of two solar power plants in Tamil Nadu and Telangana, India. That greenhouse gas-free solar power is exported to India’s regional grid system and replaces more than 200 million pounds of CO2 per year.
What about if you’ve already snagged a flight elsewhere, but still want to reduce your footprint? In that case, you can use FlyGRN’s calculator to see your flight’s exact amount of emissions and pay to offset it directly. When you enter your email, you’ll receive a certificate that guarantees the offset.
And you'll feel a little better than if you simply booked on Expedia.
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