KoreaToday Korean Air fights to reduce carbon footprint
Carrier plants trees in Korea, operates fuel-efficient fleets
By Kim Da-ye
Korean Air says that the spotlight for this year’s management strategy is on the environment and it will make the utmost efforts for “sustainable growth” in the era of green growth.
The nation’s largest airline aims to pursue “eco-friendly management” through planting trees around the world, adding more fuel-efficient airplanes to its fleet and executing internal campaigns to promote protecting the environment.
The airliner’s “green management” initiative starts with the rudimentary step of planting
trees in regions where desertification is a serious problem. Titled the Global Planting Project, Korean Air arranged a tree planting event in the Kubuqi Desert, China’s seventh largest desert located in the Inner Mongolia region, from Sept. 13 to 15.
The Kubuqi Desert is where the yellow dust storm that plagues Korea every spring originates. Designated within the desert is the “Korean Air Green Ecological Zone” in which the airliner aims to build a wooded area measuring 28 kilometers long and up to 8 kilometers wide.
The project is being carried out by Korea’s advocacy group Future Forest and China’s youth association. The tree planting event has been held every year since 2007, and, this year, 70 employees of Korean Air joined 11 students and teachers from Suwon High School for Agricultural Science and 50 students from the Inner Mongolia College of Education.
The carrier says that the friendship between the two countries is symbolized in the roughly 150 volunteers from Korea and China working together for a common goal.
The Korean Air Green Ecological Zone will have about a million trees growing in its 3.16-million-square-meter land when the tree planting efforts are completed this year. By 2011, the area will transform into a 6-million-square-meter forest with an impressive 1.8 million lush trees, says Korean Air.
Desert willows, white poplars and pine trees were selected as they grow well in the local environmental conditions there.
The Kubuqi Desert is among several other places Korean Air has worked to improve since 2004 including the Baganor Desert in Mongolia where desertification has caused yellow dust storms to spread across Asia.
The airline created the “Korean Air Forest” near the desert, and plants trees there every year. “Planting trees in Mongolia improves the quality of life for the local residents while presenting Koreans with the blue sky,” said Korean Air in a statement.
Between 2004 and May this year, the Korean Air Forest grew to 314,000 square meters with a total of 46,000 trees. In May last year, the Mongolian government awarded the airliner with an “Environmental Excellence Medal.” The award contained a thank-you message for the contributions made in the past five years. The airliner was honored again this year by the local government of Baganor.
Additionally, in 2006, Mongolia celebrated the 800th anniversary of the Genghis Khan Empire, and Baganor was chosen as one of the greenest cities by the Mongolian government. The Korean Air Forest was put under the limelight as a “successful model for partnerships between global companies and the local government,” according to the airliner.
Los Angeles, Korean Air’s key destination in North American with the highest population of overseas Koreans, is another place where the airliner’s “green” interest lies. The carrier agreed to donate a total of $160,000 over four years to the Million Trees Los Angeles (MTLA) project campaigning to plant one million trees in America’s second most populous city.
In March 31, 2009, Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa participated in the event designed to plant trees in the city’s famous Koreatown.
The “eco-friendly” management extends from beyond the corporate social responsibility initiatives to the actual operation of the carrier.
As part of a plan to modernize in an environmentally aware way, Korean Air intends to switch 20 percent of its fleet to the fuel-efficient Airbus A380s and Boeing B787s to be used as the next generation airplanes.
The Airbus A380 is expected to carry 35 percent more passengers than the average larger airplanes and to reduce the noise caused in landing and taking off by 30 percent. Three liters of fuel will be used per passenger for every 100 kilometers, according to the airliner.
For the Boeing B787 which will be added to the fleet in 2011, Korean Air says, its body and wings are made of carbon fiber and are lighter than airplanes made of aluminum alloy. The lighter weight will help save fuel and generate 20 percent less carbon dioxide than conventional aircrafts.
In addition, the carrier has adopted the Continuous Descent Approach (CDA), a method of approaching the airport before landing, which shortens the distance airplanes fly.
Even if an airplane shortens the flying time by just one minute using the approach method, Korean Air says it can cut 41,800 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year. Turning off the power during moving to the hardstands can further reduce 12,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. They together yield the effect of planting 25 million trees, the airline says.
The aggressive marketing is also part of Korean Air’s “eco-friendly” management. To share information about low carbon green growth, Korean Air launched a microsite, sky.koreanair.com, on Feb. 16. A week later, Korean Air President Chi Chang-hoon and other department heads made the “Eco-Doing” vow to protect the environment.
On Aug. 8, the airliner appointed a pair of teddy bears to be environment ambassadors at the international check-in counter at Kimpo Airport. Mr. Greene, the male teddy bear pilot, and Miss Love, the female teddy bear flight attendant, will advocate the eco-friendly message among the public.
Internally, Korean Air is pushing a campaign to raise awareness on environmental protection among all company employees.
The “Ecoffice” campaign includes the “Save Paper Competition” participated in by 32 departments and “Green Day,” the last Friday of each month when employees work on different environmental themes.