Flying somewhere? How can I contribute to the environment with EcoTree?

Calculating your footprint

How we calculate the carbon footprint of a flight

First we calculate the distance between the two airports to give us the amount of kerosene the plane needs for the journey.

Next we add an extra 1.1 tons of kerosene to account for take off, landing and taxiing to and from the runway.

3.1kg of CO₂ is created for every 1kg of fuel used. So we multiply the fuel mass above by 3.1 to estimate the CO₂ emitted.

Finally we divide this amount by the average number of passengers for that type of flight to work out your personal contribution.

First we calculate the distance between the two airports to give us the amount of kerosene the plane needs for the journey.

Next we add an extra 1.1 tons of kerosene to account for take off, landing and taxiing to and from the runway.

3.1kg of CO₂ is created for every 1kg of fuel used. So we multiply the fuel mass above by 3.1 to estimate the CO₂ emitted.

Finally we divide this amount by the average number of passengers for that type of flight to work out your personal contribution.

Beyond offsetting

How to earn a clean conscience

Offsetting is such a problematic term. At EcoTree, we aim to help people practically and financially towards a greener future. Individually, we'll never be able to completely offset or remove our footprint on the planet. We can't buy our way out of positive action going forward. But together, we can make a cleaner step in the right direction.

See our carbon manifesto

Lanrivain Forest, France

We are foresters. Proper, certified, passionate ones! So we don't just plant trees, we nurture forests that provide vital sustainable timber resources.

EcoTree forests are vital carbon sinks, where trees are sustainably managed to contribute to the fight against climate change over their lifetime.

Biodiversity is at the heart of our forestry. By becoming a tree owner, you're preserving the forest home of many vital plants and animals.

The benefits are all yours! It's your tree, so it's your contribution to carbon capture, your biodiversity haven and your profit when the tree is cut.

Start your green journey

Lanrivain Forest, France

The dirty details

How EcoTree calculates carbon emissions on flights

Lanrivain Forest, France

To give you a better idea of how we calculate your carbon footprint for a flight, let's take an example. Say you hop on a short flight of around 1000km that takes two hours. We add the fixed figure of 95km for approach and avoidance manoeuvres. 2.7kg of kerosene will be used every kilometre. That's 2.95 tonnes for the trip. We add 1.1 tonnes for take off, landing and taxiing, giving us 4.01 tonnes in total.

For every kg of kerosene consumed by the plane, 3.1kg of CO₂ is produced. So in our example above, your flight would give a carbon footprint of 12.43 tonnes of CO₂. 75% of that total comes from the flight, 25% for landing and take-off phases. When calculating short flights, we estimate 7% of the load is cargo. We increase this to 26% for long-haul flights. So for your flight example, 93% of the footprint (11.56 tonnes) should be split between the passengers.

If we assume 150 seats on aircraft used for short haul, and an occupancy rate of around 82%, we have 122 other passengers that you'd personally share the CO₂ load with. To be fairer to all, we apply a multiplying factor to account for the fact that business and first class occupy proportionally more space than an economy-class seat. And when calculating long-haul flights, the amount of kerosene for take off, landing and used per km is bigger, but divided between more people.

Finally, a little note about dirty old NOx. Trees unfortunately don't absorb this greenhouse gas, which is also produced from the combustion of aeroplane fuel. So to compensate for this, we just aim to absorb even more CO₂. We therefore double our CO₂ total when factoring NOx into the equation.

So without NOx added, our footprint for this short flight is 94kg of CO₂.

Calculate and reduce your flight's carbon footprint

How we calculate the carbon footprint of a flight

Tips for reducing your flight-related emissions

How to earn a clean conscience

Owning trees in our forests to reduce your footprint

How EcoTree calculates carbon emissions on flights

Got carbon footprint questions