A resounding theme of all business in recent years has been to become “green”. Air Canada (AC) is no exception and in its trek to sustainability has partnered with Zerofootprint, allowing travellers to offset their emissions created by air travel. Customers are essentially paying for their pollution by funding a reforestation program in Maple Ridge B.C organized by Zerfootprint.

As stated in the article, this merely allows the public to free their conscious of guilt without changing the habits. The same can be said for AC, it simply gives AC an image of eco-friendly corporation when, in fact, it has not addressed the problem of carbon emissions produced by their planes.

I remain skeptical about the actual effects of these offsets. How will planting a baby tree today offset the emission of the flight tomorrow? Also, I paid a visit to this reforestation in Maple Ridge and there is no one to maintain the newly planted trees; some had even been stepped on and contorted.

Carbon offsets are being used as a publicity stunt rather than a genuine effort to reduce emissions.

Air Canada’s carbon-offset program takes flight