UK-headquartered charter broker and aviation consultancy Hunt & Palmer has launched a carbon offsetting initiative in collaboration with C-Level, an organisation whose carbon balancing ensures verified action through the Plan Vivo network of charities and not-for-profit entities.

Director Mark Jenkinson explains: “This is a very straight forward carbon balancing plan, with no gimmicks or pretentions, that can apply equally well for corporate clients or individuals alike. Simply put, we advise our clients at the point of sale how much carbon tonnage is attributable to their charter, and what the cost option is to balance or offset that by purchasing carbon compensation credits created by the Plan Vivo projects.”

C-Level has devised a system for the company that calculates the carbon tonnage for each flight using real world data for the specific aircraft types chartered on behalf of their clients.

“It's not us determining the carbon impact of any flight,” says Jenkinson. “That calculation is made using C-Level's system and industry supplied data for the entire aircraft. This provides a level of independence to the process and is far more accurate for our purposes than the 'per passenger' model often used by individual travellers and some other businesses to calculate their carbon footprint.”

Those clients opting to purchase these carbon credits will be supporting projects that provide verified carbon benefits by both protecting and restoring indigenous forests, thereby helping to achieve global sustainable development goals.

Chairman Jeremy Palmer comments: “We have worked closely with C-Level on this project and its professional advice and expertise have proved invaluable in achieving our objective of providing our clients with a practical and robust facility for balancing the carbon impact associated with their air travel. It is the board's intention that the Hunt & Palmer group will work to balance the carbon impact of its own operations as part of this initiative, and we are liaising with C-Level for their guidance in that process too.”

In conclusion, Jenkinson adds: “Flying is very much a reality of life for tens of thousands of people every day, and when we do travel by air we can all strive to minimise our impact on the planet by supporting credible climate action programmes such as this. We strongly believe that the carbon credits provide real world benefits where they are most needed, and we encourage all our clients to consider balancing their carbon footprint when chartering with us in future.”