4AIR launches sustainability initiative for general aviation

4AIR, the first and only rating system focused on comprehensive sustainability in private aviation, announced Aug. 16 it has launched a General Aviation Program to enable private pilots to offset the impact of their own flight activities.

Similar to the program for other aviation stakeholders such as business jet travel providers, brokers and flight departments, it offers an easy, turnkey solution so that private pilots can fly confidently knowing that the impact of their flights on the environment has been mitigated.

“4AIR’s goal is to make sustainability easy and accessible for private aviation, and that now includes the general-aviation population,” said Kennedy Ricci, 4AIR’s president. “We’ve heard from a number of private pilots, as well as people considering taking up flying, that they worry about the impact of their flights on the environment, especially climate change. Our new program empowers individual pilots to offset the impact of their personal flying by supporting the same kind of large-scale sustainability initiatives previously available only to private travel providers and their passengers.”

The 4AIR General Aviation Program is designed as a monthly subscription customized to the type of aircraft, the sustainability commitment pilots want to make and their typical annual hours flown, to make their sustainability commitment as simple as possible.

Designed as the only turnkey sustainability solution for private aviation, the 4AIR General Aviation Program enables pilots to subscribe to the program, with 4AIR automatically handling all of the fulfillment aspects of the program for them, calculating the emissions associated with climate change and identifying solutions.

The program has four increasingly progressive levels that parallel those followed by business jet travel providers:

• Level 1—Carbon Neutral: 100 percent offset of an aircraft’s CO2 footprint, typically through carbon credits that fund sustainability projects such as solar power

• Level 2—Emissions Neutral: 300 percent offset of an aircraft’s carbon footprint to account not only for CO2 but also for noncarbon emissions that affect the climate such as soot, water vapor and nitrous oxides

• Level 3—Beyond Neutral: 300 percent offset and 5 percent actual reduction in emissions through the additional use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) credits

• Level 4—Climate Champion: A $2 per metric ton of emissions contribution to the Aviation Climate Fund, which supports advances in sustainable aviation technology, ultimately to achieve a goal of net-zero flight—no added emissions from flight activities

Once pilots select a level of commitment, they can sign up right on the website for a monthly subscription for their personal program. Pilots can participate regardless of whether they own or rent an aircraft and can include multiple aircraft.

Later this year, pilots will be given the option of a decal advertising the level they have attained to add to their aircraft and a keychain upcycled from scrapped aircraft to demonstrate their sustainability commitment.

“If your aviation activities generate a carbon footprint, 4AIR can help you mitigate its impact,” said Ricci. “We want to give pilots, aircraft owners and passengers the ability to do the right thing for the environment, and this program does so in a way that is simple and easy to understand, making them part of the solution.”