Fighting Flygskam

It's no surprise to anyone what an impact air travel has on the collective, planetary carbon footprint. It's come to have a name: flygskam. This Swedish word, which popped up in 2017 but gained popularity  shortly before the pandemic began means "flying shame." It is defined as climate guilt from flying, and is a term that came into being during Greta Thunberg's activism and refusal to fly due to the fact that flights can be extremely hard on our environment and contribute to high rates of greenhouse gasses. Additionally, many Europeans especially can take high speed trains at a much lower impact. Their choices reduced the amount of air travel right before the pandemic, double hitting the aviation industry.

Clearly it's a problem that needs to be solved as our world becomes more global and there is a greater need for people to be in other parts of the world. How can we do it responsibly? It is going to take innovation to help solve the problems of climate change and other environmental issues.

Board Now is just one of the many innovative plans trying to work on this solution. Board Now is a program that has partnered many organizations to build a coalition to reduce emissions through sustainable aviation fuel.  This Fues would be "made from sustainable feedstocks such as waste oils from biological origin, agri resides or non-fossil CO2." By having companies buy into the program, more refineries that produce sustainable aviation fuel can be built, which over time will lower the cost of this type of fuel. When companies affiliate with Board Now, they make a commitment to the planet to reduce overall emissions and their own carbon footprint while also helping to make this a more sustainable alternative overall in the field of aviation. 

To learn more about Board Now, check out their website. Also, be sure to check out some of the members and partners that are affiliated and on board with Board Now.

Flygskam video from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2019-09-26/how-something-called-flygskam-is-hurting-european-airlines-video, Board Now video and logo from https://boardnow.org