Goodwings Is Accelerating the Decarbonization of Business Travel by Making Biofuel Affordable

by Christopher Marquis (Forbes) Goodwings, a Copenhagen based travel provider that helps consumers reduce emissions from their travel, has announced today that it will be launching a biofuels option to its suite of climate solutions. It works as follows - when customers book a hotel on the platform, Goodwings uses its booking revenues (which for the likes of Bookings.com are spent on advertising) to finance green jet fuel (biofuel) and nature-based removal offset projects on their behalf, providing them with transparent travel emissions data for sustainability reporting.

This move puts them at the forefront of businesses investing in this area, but also there is a crucial difference compared to other providers- they are offering it at a rate that’s affordable for business travelers. The new offering will mean that Goodwings customers will be able to reduce their flight emissions by 25-100% on domestic trips, 10-50% on regional trips and 1-10% on long-haul, at a considerably lower cost than purchasing it directly through the airline.

Christian Møller-Holst: We have been investing in verified carbon removal projects for some time now, [which are a hugely effective way of using nature to neutralize emissions], but we always knew we wanted to go one step further with our impact strategy, and keep pace with the innovations reshaping the aviation sector. As it stands, biofuel is still not a viable replacement for fossil fuels - it’s prohibitively expensive and produced at a volume that’s not yet scalable for the whole industry. So, we knew we had to position it in a way that made it seem like a no-brainer for businesses to get onboard.

Our current portfolio of customers were very happy with our verified nature-based projects, but increased ESG legislation means the bar will just continue to be set higher. Fortunately we were one step ahead with biofuel. But on a general note, I believe that businesses of all sizes are finally waking up to climate change. Not only are companies witnessing the effects on supply chains and revenue streams, but decision makers are noticing the effects in their personal lives too, which is driving a lot of positive action at a senior level, with the likes of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Bird & Bird, Manyone and Designit recognising the need for Goodwings. I’m hopeful that many others will follow their example and start introducing sustainable travel policies and reduction targets. The reality is that no single business is going to solve this problem alone - we all need to take part.

What we do is calculate your travel emissions using the DEFRA conversion factors and then purchase the respective amount of biofuel which is then put into operation in a plane somewhere in the world. Everything is audited by TÜV and we pass on the purchase certificates to our clients, so they can use the emission reductions in their accounting. And as we do with our nature based projects, we make sure that everything is third party audited so our customers feel they can trust that what we say is happening, is actually happening! READ MORE