Blackcomb Helicopters goes carbon neutral

The McLean Group company operates in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, with 22 aircraft in its fleet and bases at six different locations. Thanks to its conscientious efforts to ‘meet customer demand for offsetting with “elective” travel’, which it began championing in 2018, all of the company’s operations – including employee commutes, facility emissions, waste and fuel burn – are entirely carbon neutral due to carbon offsetting.

“In my 40 years in the industry, burning jet fuel has been a constant, and there are really no near-term alternatives to gas turbines for the missions expected of us,” commented John Morris, General Manager and Director of Blackcomb Helicopters.

Indeed, Blackcomb helicopters acknowledges that its helicopter tours emit unavoidable CO2 emissions, but rather than quietly accepting defeat in the face of global warming, the company proactively offsets the greenhouse gases emitted by purchasing the equivalent amount of carbon offsets through the Canadian carbon management company Offsetters. “By purchasing from the Quadra Island Forestland Conservation Project, we support a project that sequesters the equivalent amount of greenhouse gases that we emit – neutralising the climate impact of our flights,” Blackcomb Helicopters wrote in a press release.

The company also incorporates local green tech and travel initiatives, encouraging greener travel for commuters, and incorporating energy savings and lower emissions into new building design.

“Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time and we can’t simply leave it to regulators to fix things for us. Businesses also need to adapt and help lead the transition to a lower carbon economy,” said Jason McLean, CEO of McLean group.