Recently in environment Category

An interesting article in the Pacific Coast Business Times on Avantair, a company in Camarillo that promotes "environmental responsibility in general aviation."

Avantair, a Clearwater, Fla.-based exclusive seller of fractional shares in Piaggio Avanti P.180 aircraft, keeps one of its few sales and only two maintenance facilities in the United States at the Camarillo airport. Dubbed by the company as the “hybrid of the skies,” the aircraft boasts the fuel efficiency of a turboprop and the speed and comfort of many jets.

To further the appeal of the P.180 as a green air transportation option, Avantair recently formed a partnership with TerraPass, an organization dedicated to the management of climate change.

People aren't going to stop traveling via air anytime soon (unless the bird flu hits - then all bets are off. Would you get on a plane with 200 people, knowing that someone with the sniffles might have a virus that could kill you in three days?). And so, aviation becomes yet another industry that is moving towards being "green", in terms of fuel consumption, emissions and of course marketing. And look what happens when a company decides to take the lead in environmental responsibility. Others follow, which begins as a trickle and may turn into an industry-wide flood.

Following Avantair’s partnership with TerraPass, NetJets, a major private aviation company and fractional seller, announced a plan to take several steps to offset its climate impact, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, offsetting unavoidable impacts and investing in research for environmentally efficient aviation technologies.

I particularly enjoyed this paragraph, if only for Ms. Goodspeed's name: “When people join a fractional program, they fly frequently. They want to have the best options possible to them,” said Ginger Goodspeed, Avantair’s Camarillo customer service manager.