Gulf Air Launches Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives for 2011

Bahrain’s National carrier Gulf Air, in its continuous efforts towards improving the environment in which it operates, today outlined its corporate social responsibility (CSR) plan and initiatives for 2011.

Building on the airline’s existing CSR strategy, the plan reinforces the airline’s commitment to operate as a responsible global citizen by focusing on driving sustainability in three key areas – climate change and clean air, waste management, and community service through a program of research and development and education and outreach, developed in cooperation with external partners.

The airline, which has had a CSR strategy in place since 2008, supports and manages many local and regional charity initiatives and several other environment-friendly CSR projects including carbon emission reduction across its global network.

As part of its 2011 initiatives, the airline today announced new strategic partnerships with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Bahrain’s Ministry of Education (MoE).

Gulf Air’s Chief Executive Officer Mr. Samer Majali announced the new initiatives for 2011 at a press conference held at the company’s headquarters and elaborated on the airline’s significant achievements in 2010 as part of the company’s wider Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy.

Mr. Majali commented, “As a responsible corporate entity Gulf Air understands the importance of CSR and its role in protecting and improving the environment in which it operates, at home or abroad.”

“While we have made some significant achievements since the launch of our CSR policy in 2008, our collaboration with UNEP and MoE this year is a further boost to our campaign towards promoting environmental awareness.

As a first step, we will be launching a series of local activities that include an environmentally themed drawing competition involving students from local government schools. The winners of the three best drawings will fly to Kochi, India where they will spend a week nature camping, nature trail-walking, learning eco-conservation etc., in an eco-touristic resort to understand and appreciate the planet we live in and promote the message back home.

We will also be screening on board our flights a series of short documentary films on the Environment produced by UNEP (in English with Arabic subtitles) demonstrating our support and involvement with the International organization in its mission to save the earth. This video will run from June to December and is expected to be seen by nearly 3 million passengers.

On 5 June Gulf Air will be celebrating World Environment day with a ‘Green Corners’ event. We will donate hundreds of tree saplings to various schools for students to plant them in an allocated ‘green corner’ on the grounds. Volunteers will be educating the kids on how to tend to the plants and how they can be part of the worldwide movement in protecting the environment.

Gulf Air staff members will also be planting tree saplings in allocated ‘green corners’ on GF premises on that day.

An internal communications campaign will also be launched for employees to reduce waste and adapt environment-friendly practices in their day-to-day work.

On the technical front, Gulf Air will soon be signing up with IATA to introduce a voluntary carbon offset programme for its customers.

We are also preparing to join the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS).”

Elaborating on the achievements made in 2010, Mr. Majali said, “Carbon emission is one of the major environmental concerns globally and Gulf Air has proactively implemented several fuel-saving initiatives in 2010 resulting in an emissions reduction 20,000 tons of CO2 last year.”

He continued, “We were able to achieve this by:

Renewing our narrow-body fleet with eight new aircraft between January and December 2010. The new A320s are fitted with fuel-efficient CFM56-5B engines that reduce emissions by 200 tons per aircraft per year.

Introducing regional jets, which are new, highly fuel-efficient, and cost-effective that reduce the environmental impact of the flight.

Introducing the unified “Falcon Gold” premium class that reduces CO2 emissions due to reduction in the weight of catering equipment/accessories carried onboard.

Optimizing our ‘flight plan’ that made a significant contribution to reduce carbon emissions.

Removing and reducing the weight of all non-essential items carried on-board.

Introducing single catering on certain outbound routes instead of double catering to reduce the weight of catering equipment carried onboard.

Applying a single-engine taxi procedure on landing, whenever appropriate. This procedure alone reduces fuel burn by almost half and saves us about 5000 USG per month, or 570 tons of CO2 per year.”

All these measures have been taken while maintaining the highest levels of flight safety, schedule reliability and passenger travel convenience.”

“As a long-standing member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), we are in tune with the world body’s commitment to achieve carbon-neutral growth from 2020.”

“In addition to aggressively reducing our fuel emissions we remain committed to supporting a number of local and regional charity initiatives across our network including the local mother and welfare society in Bahrain, UCO Parents Home, supporting special sports activities for people with special needs such as the Amwaj Triathlon, and several refuge initiatives in the Philippines, Pakistan, and Palestine’s Gaza”.

“Finally, we strongly believe that Gulf Air can play a positive role in protecting the environment and help build a better future for our children, the local community and the world,” Mr. Majali concluded.

Mrs. Marie Dhaher the Information and Outreach Officer for the UNEP Regional Office of West Asia in Bahrain commented, “This alliance between UNEP and Gulf Air is an example of how the corporate sector can embrace environmental responsibility and contribute to tackling the environmental challenges. It underlines the three bottom lines of sustainable development – prosperity, environmental quality and social equity -which are integral to the business sector.”