Flying the Flag in Phua Chu Kang boots

We did it!  After months of delay due to bad weather, a bus load of MAS employees went to plant tree saplings in Pekan, Pahang, as part of our Voluntary Carbon Offset Scheme (VCOS).  Passengers flying MAS have the option of offsetting their portion of carbon dioxide emitted during their flight, thus helping to reduce global warming.  MAS staff on duty travel have their emissions automatically offset.  We joined many hundreds of people from the local community and school, government agencies involved including Forestry, FRIM, MNRE and local government, and our corporate donors Khazanah and Maxis.

We are the first! This is the first such carbon offset scheme in Malaysia involving a partnership between private and public sectors.  On top of that, we were also the first airline in ASEAN to launch a voluntary carbon offset scheme back in 2008.

Unlike the previous few days, the skies remained clear and we enjoyed the carnival-like atmosphere as educational booths had been set up by government agencies and local universities.  There was ample food and drinks, and lucky draw prizes awaited those lucky enough to find a red envelope waiting for them at their designated planting plot!  A live band was also present, belting out tunes and adding to the jovial atmosphere.

Our tree planting forms part of the rehabilitation and conservation of the South-East Pahang Peat Swamp Forest (SEPPSF), internationally known for being the largest contiguous peat swamp forest in the world.  When we plant trees, we are not only offsetting the carbon dioxide emitted by air travel, but are also helping in the conservation of hundreds of species of plants and animals, some found only in this area.  This tree planting marks the culmination of 2 years hard effort by MAS and various government agencies.  We have collected RM180,000 so far, and future carbon offset efforts will continue to tap into this fund.

Mucking about for a good cause

You can make a difference! When you travel next on MAS, do consider a donation to the VCOS fund – our online calculator makes it easy to calculate the cost of offsetting your carbon emissions, and you have the option of fully offsetting, or donating any amount that you wish.  A return trip from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne only costs RM38.40 to fully offset!

http://site.malaysiaairlines.com/campaigns/calculate.aspx

FAQs at http://site.malaysiaairlines.com/campaigns

Sustainability at MAS. MAS has many initiatives that enable us to reduce our carbon emissions and footprint.  Our new 737-800s and A380s, for example, burn less fuel than the aircraft that they are or will be replacing.  Our meal containers served in-flight are made from sugar cane fibre, reducing our reliance on plastic and paper products.  Other initiatives are in the pipe-line and will be announced once they take off.  We also take a holistic view of Sustainability, looking at all three aspects of business, community and environment in any particular project.  Through our tree-planting, we are contributing to the conservation of the environment by adding a Voluntary Carbon Offset element to how we do business.  Not forgetting the local community, we have used the proceeds raised during Townhall to buy 2 netbooks and a printer, items requested by Sekolah Kebangsaan Runchang, the local Orang Asli school.  Our staff also conducted a learning session during the launch, teaching the orang asli children about global warming and how planting trees can help reduce it.

Edutainment session on global warming & tree planting

At MAS, we care.

Local orang asli kids joining in the fun

Environment was given floor space at the exhibit hall and we decided to try something different.  Promoting our voluntary carbon offset program to MAS employees was a bomoh, selling empty bottles of… you guessed it… CO2.  He was hard at work selling, as he puts it, “…strong fever medicine for earth, who is very sick…”

Bomoh at work sequestering carbon

Kudos again to all of us for the job well done for the 2nd waste collection at Administration Building KLIA and Engineering Central store.

A total of 2.338tons of waste were collected, consisting of 2.109tons from Administration building and 279kg from Material Management Department.

In keeping with the momentum of this initiative, the 3rd waste collection will be held on 23 February 2011. We would appreciate more departments from Engineering to participate and support the Green Journey acivities for our 3rd waste collection.

The experience of the first collection was quite well received, so it is heart-warming to see this being continued. Looking forward to the next one!

Sorting the paper wastes

Segregating..

Carting it away..

As with all airlines that serve the European markets, we had started our EU ETS monitoring and reporting activities for the whole of this calendar year. As I type this we are finalising the legal and commercial arrangements with a vendor on the verification process- a process / exercise that is mandatory for the EU ETS compliance.

Disappointingly, our Green Office program has not been running as smoothly as we had hoped. There were stop-start activities- some folks have seriously taken this on board, but most have been busy with the airline’s main focus, sidelining this “secondary activity” to pursue company objectives. We did have one building-wide “spring clean” exercise in our own office, where at least on a local level we are now aware of how much paper products we use and dispose. We are looking at having this as a recurrent activity, as well as for other buildings to do the same.

Our Voluntary Carbon Offset program has gained another corporate client- Khazanah Nasional Berhad, who joined our program with a donation. Thank you ladies for supporting our initiative

And on this note, we will be having a tree-planting event in January 2011 together with FRIM and the Pahang State Government, to assist in their redevelopment of the Pekan peat swamps.

On November 11th we jointly conducted the Airport and airline on sustainability seminar, where we shared similar and different challenges and approaches in dealing with climate change in the industry, and where we also learned about our guest speaker’s Deep Green program. I would very much like to see this become a series of events, with Malaysia Airports again, on similar topics, but with expanded scope and depth. Aviation and climate change is an interesting combination of topics internationally, even more so for the locals perspective.

Moving forward we will be further pursuing the sustainability agenda for the airline. A lot of 2010 was spent creating the awareness and educating the internal folks and management about this topic and how the airline would benefit with green initiatives. We have been engaging the higher management with this topic, both from a CSR as well as a brand-positioning perspective. 2011 will be the year when this becomes an internal policy, where we will also be pushing for more employee engagement activities to support this slow but steady cultural change.

On that note Malaysia Airlines will also therefore start to formally report on its sustainability efforts. This will include formalising this as a policy, increase internal adoption at the corporate level, conduct activities where we will measure and set targets for our (reduced) carbon footprint, increase our Green Office and 3R programs to include onboard activities, social responsibility activities, and have fun at the same time

Alam Flora had earlier come to give a presentation on some facts about waste, and also what types of wastes they could collect. We discussed about the different types of wastes from the various departments around our KLIA offices.

So finally, today we collected and recycled 2.67tons of paper just from our Admin Building itself at our KLIA premises.

Ladies bringing down the paper waste..

Sorting the types of paper wastes..

Here it comes..

Ready to take them away..

Titled “Aviation and Climate Change”, the list of esteemed speakers and topics included keynotes from both MD’s on their respective views and roles on this same issue, Mr Tan Ching Tiong, a research officer at SEADPRI-UKM, sharing the National Policy on Climate Change; Khazanah Nasional, on the Silverbook (link is a PDF file), Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability; Malaysia Airports on what our airports are doing locally and globally; Malaysia Airlines sharing what EUETS is and its own initiatives on carbon offsetting; and a special guest- DiGi, to share their Deep Green program.

As organisers we already had an idea of these topics and content. But I would like to think for that most of the attendees, especially the bosses, this would be the first time they are seeing- more importantly, learning about these issues we are all facing.

In all, I think we achieved our objective for this awareness event. That it was also rather fun organising and moderating the sessions, I would like to see more of such collaborations in future!

Group IT’s Business Solution Group (BSG) has shared their progress with us, complete with photos to show for!

They now have their own-volunteered bins for their waste collection.

Thanks guys for joining in with your efforts. Looking good!

The BSG team

Showing off their efforts

In action spring cleaning

There is no mandate, and the government says it’s simply making suggestions to companies listed on the SGX. So how can Singapore convince companies to adopt sustainability reporting? The answer appears to be public pressure.

This excerpt, taken from the Fast Company’s website, titled “Singapore Stock Exchange Uses Peer Pressure to Encourage Sustainability Reporting“

Two things worth noting: That the Singaporean authority has taken the stance towards adopting sustainability, and that through the stock exchange, that they have also set out guidelines for awareness and adoption, and that it is also available for the public’s comments.

An interesting extract from the policy is the statement below:

The Exchange adopts a progressive approach towards the policy on sustainability reporting, which balances global and local developments. The policy statement sets the baseline for holistic reporting going beyond corporate governance to social and environmental aspects. We expect, with our statement, to generate awareness among listed companies, leading to acceptance and commitment to sustainability as an operating principle as well as to be reported on. As the pace of sustainability reporting gains momentum amongst issuers, the Exchange will review our policy on sustainability reporting to keep pace with global developments and will consider formulating formal rules to regulate disclosure if necessary.

While we are aware that there are already financial institutions with local presence looking into “alternative” investments such as in this space, it will be interesting to see how well this takes off regionally.

Also, as with all things “voluntary”, it will also be interesting to see how much of this is voluntarily taken up by the reporting companies, before the SGX considers “formulating formal rules to regulate disclosure if necessary.”

Maybe mandating something is the way to get adoption (of any and all initiatives) going?

Some of the measures and practises that lay people may find interesting to learn include:

• As a safety precaution, understandably pilots carry some extra fuel as buffer against unexpected weather, etc, that may require more than usual fuel for a flight;
• Some pilots prefer to “top up” the amount of fuel as a further safety buffer, even though calculations already made prior on the ground indicates the plane really only need less than that;
• Some regional airlines publish anonymously the amount of fuel each pilots use over a month, not to encourage competition (of who is most efficient) but to at least know where you rank among your fellow pilots (they can log in to find out their position among other pilots still anonymously);
• It is never a good idea to use pilot fuel efficiency as a Key Performance Indicator, for salary or performance bonuses. This is simply because it will start compromising safety standards;
• Airplanes are equipped with an Auxiliary Power Unit usually located in the tail of the plane, which acts as a power generator for the plane’s air conditioning, lighting, etc. One of the discussions revolved around whether the plane’s main engines (on the wings) ought to be cut off after landing and while taxiing to the airport, relying solely on the APU’s power;
• Other discussions also revolved around whether the APU should be used as a generator when the plane is parked at the airport gate, or should it rely on ground vehicles’ power generator;
• Finally, when the air conditioner should be justifiably switched on, ie 30 minutes before passengers board for their comfort, on hot days on the tarmac.

These are but some of the few things, among hundreds, that airlines and industry bodies such as IATA look into to save fuel use, which ultimately save costs and burn less fossil fuel over time, across an airline’s (whole) fleet.