A look back: Sustainability at App in the Air
Sustainability is near and dear to everyone at App in the Air, and this is because while we all love the adventures and experiences of travel, we also understand the impact it can have on the environment. With that being said, we’ve built several projects this past year to keep our users informed about their impact and giving them the tools to make any carbon offset decisions. Here’s a recap of what we’ve accomplished.
Carbon Neutral Traveler
Late last year, we partnered with One Tree Planted, a nonprofit organization dedicated to planting trees around the world, to help offset the carbon footprint created by air travel.
By the end of the year we sent out in-app notifications to our users with their total annual emissions and they were encouraged to help offset the carbon impact of all their previous flown flights, which also unlocked the “Carbon Neutral Traveler” badge.
Within the app, we developed a new functionality that calculates a traveler’s carbon impact based on flight distance flown and other important travel factors, allowing them to offset as they book flights and combat the aviation industry’s footprint, which makes up 2–2.5% of global carbon emissions. We’re also committed to planting a tree for every flight booked in the app. And by the way, we’ve already planted over 10,000 trees around the world! Every time you book a flight or hotel on App in the Air, you’re directly contributing towards the creation of a more sustainable future, so why book anywhere else? Travel + Leisure certainly likes what we’re doing.
We’ve extended this partnership even further by developing a CO2 calculator for One Tree Planted website visitors. Want to know how many trees you’ll need to plant towards helping to offset a future flight? Find out here.
Do right by the planet
Knowledge means choice. We want to give our users the tools they need to reduce their carbon footprint when possible, and offset as they desire as well. That’s why we developed a Carbon Emissions Calculator based on reliable sources so passengers can see the carbon impact of different options while searching for flights. Want to fly on an environmentally friendly flight? Now, we can help you find the best option.
Contribute on your own
We’re thrilled to announce a new partnership with CBL Markets that will give us (and our users) access to a wide selection of certified ecological projects. What does this mean? Now when purchasing a flight in our app, we’ll also give you the ability to help offset that flight based on the carbon impact of the journey. The power is in your hands.
Not just for the iOS users
For our Samsung partner we actually created a special Galaxy theme. This included a set of icons, wallpapers, lock screens and several other OS appearance changes that were made available to Samsung users for a fee. All the earnings from this went right back into One Tree Planted.
Earth Day 2020
Even though we’re not able to travel the same way we did in 2019, we still celebrated Earth Day with a number of stories highlighting ways you can save the planet, even if you’re at home. Why? We embrace sustainability across all aspects of our lives, not just travel. We even created an Instagram filter so you can match with an activity, tag a friend and share with your friends. You can try it out here.
All in all, it’s been an interesting year with a lot of new experiences and learnings. We want to thank everyone who contributed to making all these amazing projects come to life, and we’re looking forward to what lies ahead this year!
