US charter services and jet card membership provider Paramount Business Jets (PBJ) is introducing its Easy Private Jet Carbon Offset System, a digital resource that allows passengers to mitigate pollution generated by their flight for comparatively minimal financial or time costs. It works by calculating the carbon needed to be offset and suggesting organisations that can directly accept offset donations.

Clients enter their flight time and aircraft type, which they select from a list, and the tool computes the flight's total emissions and offers a list of eight international carbon offset providers from whom they may choose to pay for carbon credits; among them Terrapass, Green Mountain Energy, Stand for Trees, Carbon Fund, Bio Carbon Partners, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Offsets to Alleviate Poverty and Climate Care.

PBJ has made the source code for the system, along with fuel burn data for private jets, notes and instructions, all available free of charge not just to their own customers but to any person or company wishing to post the system on their website under their own corporate branding. Founder and CEO Richard Zaher explains: “I encouraged the development of the system after years of frustration when trying to determine the carbon footprint of charter flights, and how to quickly and easily offset it. Until now, this information was extremely difficult for private jet charter firms to track down, and even when they could, it generally took at least two days to secure an offset. It became very clear that our clients' desire to lessen their environmental impact could only be met if we developed a system that recognised that time is typically the limiting factor for many private jet users. Our system allows private jet charter clients to calculate the carbon to be offset while connecting them with effective carbon offsetting partners in less than two minutes.”

Referring to the growing antipathy to business aviation among climate protesters and the media, he adds: “Our industry has always strived to be environmentally responsible, and these efforts have taken on even greater importance as we've seen a growing list of international movements targeting private aviation. This tool helps to fight back against climate change and global warming, by empowering private jet clients to calculate and offset their carbon and removing the weight of research and time associated with this process in the past. Now, for the first time, every private aircraft charter company in the world may offer an end to end solution to their customers to offset the pollution caused by their flight, at no cost to those companies.”

Zaher says his company is the first private jet charter provider to take an initiative like this: “We invested in the Easy Private Jet Carbon Offset System to benefit everyone on our planet; I hope our competitors use it, too.”