Whole Travel Blog

Thursday, Continental Airlines announced the results of its January 7 biofuel demonstration flight. Not only was the flight successful, the biofuel showed approximately 1.1% greater fuel efficiency over traditional jet fuel. So, not only was the fuel made from renewable sources, it actually beat traditional fuel outright. This type of fuel is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60-80% as well.

Flying the greener skies

“We look forward to working with our partners as biofuels go through the certification process, and we hope to see these fuels proceed into commercial quantities in the near future,” said Leah Raney, Continental’s managing director of global environmental affairs. Hopefully it’s not long until we see all jet fuel from sustainable sources.

The United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection held a hearing titled “It’s Too Easy Being Green: Defining Fair Green Marketing Practices” yesterday. Subcommittee leaders suggested that rules and enforcement practices be put in place over the next few years for green marketing initiatives. This is great news for all consumers, because it will be the government’s first attempt to curb greenwashing and hold companies accountable for their actual environmental and socioeconomic performance when they want to call themselves green.

Is this green?

In his opening remarks, the subcommittee chairman, Bobby Rush, expressed his interest in “…taking up the truthfulness of ‘green’ advertiser claims, consumer perception of ‘green’ claims and the respective roles the Federal Trade Commission and privately run certification and labeling programs in regulating and validating these proliferating claims.” We think this is a great idea, as there are so many certification programs in travel alone it’s difficult to navigate all the information. Whole Travel is looking forward to being part of the solution. Send us your comments and we’ll be sure to pass them along: sustainability@wholetravel.com.