Greenhouse Gas Abatement for a Light Plane?

Of Course...

27Jan2007

For some time I have been pondering my company’s pretty Mooney aircraft. It is certainly a very convenient way to get to remote places, often to work on equipment that needs urgent attention. Although for a given distance traveled it is not as economical as a Smart car, or a Prius, it’s actually a bit better than a Holden Commodore and a whole lot better than many 4WDs. Although I would love to convert the Mooney to run on Ethanol today, AGE85 (aviation grade ethanol) is not allowed to be retailed in Australia yet, so that’s not yet a practical option. In the mean time people keep asking me to fix their agriculture equipment that is located in the middle of nowhere.

So I have taken the next best option - Greenhouse Gas Abatement. I know that this is not a license to "burn it up", but at least I can say I am willing to recognize that the impact of my aircraft's exhausts goes beyond the money I pay for the fuel to make it run. Origin’s web page is not really geared for private aircraft, so I simply checked last years fuel bill, converted this to an equivalent distance for a similarly efficient car (I chose a Commodore) and entered this into their web site.

What will happen to offset the CO2 that my little plane will produce this year? I don’t really know. Do I fly it just to burn holes in the sky? No way. Does it seem worth spending on abating these emissions? Absolutely.

Perhaps you too can look at your companies operations to see if there is something you do that has an effect beyond your immediate activity.

See our aircraft's Greenhouse Gas Abatement certificate.