Oxford, Connecticut-based Tradewind Aviation is automatically adding carbon offsets to all its flights throughout North America and the Caribbean. Funds raised through the offset will go to TerraPass, a social enterprise headquartered in Houston, Texas, that uses proceeds from partner companies to fund a variety of greenhouse gas reduction projects, from renewable wind farms to agricultural methane capture to forestry projects.

This programme is an upgrade of the company's existing carbon offset effort that launched in autumn 2020. It is inspired by the growing passion of the company's leadership to take the hazards of climate change seriously and make a real effort to reduce them.

The company's first carbon offset initiative offered clients the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions of their flight activity through small fees. The voluntary offset was affordable at just $7 for an hour of flight time, which equates to Tradewind flying a Pilatus PC-12 from White Plains, New York to Nantucket off the coast of Massachusetts, or from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to St Jean, St Barths.

The original initiative was effective and well received, with contributions from customers offsetting 160.3 metric tonnes of carbon as of 31 December, 2021. Tradewind expects clients to be onboard with this next carbon offset programme, which will see the company cover 100 per cent of the cost of the carbon offsets, with an automated technology employed to ensure it applies to every Tradewind flight, whatever the destination, duration or model of aircraft flown.

Sustainability has long been front-of-mind for Tradewind's leadership, as well as an accomplishable goal, with the company employing smaller, efficient turbo jets since 2002. The current Tradewind fleet includes 18 single engine Pilatus PC-12s that require only 70 gallons of jet fuel per hour of flying time for an hourly carbon footprint of just 0.76 mt, and three Citation CJ3s that each require 173 gallons of fuel per hour for an hourly carbon footprint of 1.65 mt. By comparison, a King Air 350i requires 140 gallons of jet fuel and leaves an hourly carbon footprint of 1.35 tonnes, while a Hawker 400X light business jet uses 222 gallons of fuel per hour for an hourly footprint of 2.12 tonnes.

“Climate change is among the pressing issues of our day and we've made the decision for Tradewind Aviation to be on the right side of it, funding sustainability through carbon offsets on every flight, at no cost to our clients,” says co-founder and CEO Eric Zipkin. “Indeed, our new carbon offset programme is structured in such a way that passengers needn't even think about it to make a contribution to combatting climate change, though of course we hope they do.”