Page 37 - Flight International (January 2020)

ENVIRONMENT

PILAR WOLFSTELLER GENEVA
wiss aviation pioneer and climate
advocate Bertrand Piccard has a pow-
erful and urgent message for the avia-
Stion and aerospace industries: inno-
vate quickly, or risk losing your business to
the realities of climate change. In the era of
“flygskam”, or flight shaming, and a younger
generation’s heightened awareness of the real-
ity of a warming planet, it is up to industry
players to embrace new ideas and transforma-
tional technologies – in everything from air-
craft fuel burn to the cabin waste they discard.
The structural and operational changes
will not only be good for the environment but
also, says Piccard, for business. “Environ-
mental protection has finally become profita-
ble,” he says. “So even for people who deny
climate change, it would be logical as much as
ecological to replace what is polluting with
what is clean, because it creates more jobs and
profit than the old, outdated and inefficient
technologies.”
Piccard belongs to a dynasty of notable ex-
plorers and adventurers. His grandfather, Au-
guste, was a high-altitude balloonist, re-
searching Earth’s upper atmosphere and Logical and
measuring cosmic radiation. His father,
Jacques, was an oceanographer and undersea
explorer, whose “Challenger Deep” mission
reached the deepest known point of the
earth’s seabed in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana
Trench in 1960. ecological
Bertrand, a psychologist by training, con-
tinued the family tradition of scientific
achievement, completing the first nonstop cir-
cumnavigation of the globe in the hot air bal-
loon Breitling Orbiter 3 in 1999. Almost 20 With Solar Impulse, Bertrand Piccard showed that clean
years later, he circled the planet again, this technology can deliver a technical triumph; now his mission
time in a solar-powered aircraft called Solar
Impulse 2. is to convince business that going green makes money
After finishing the 21,600nm (40,000km)
journey in 2016 – the first by a fixed-wing air- “I wanted to be able to speak the language still have air traffic control areas who want to
craft powered only by the sun – Piccard began of the people we need to convince – the lan- keep their authority, so airplanes must fly
to build a legacy for the project. He launched guage of job creation and profitability,” longer distances – and that makes it expen-
the Solar Impulse Foundation, a broad plat- he says. “Because if you only speak about pro- sive for everybody. Then you have the possi-
form to study and promote sustainable tech- tecting the environment to people who have bility to bring airplanes to the runway
nology, as well as to encourage governments only very short-term interests, investments threshold with electric trailers rather than to
to implement ambitious energy policies. and views, it’s useless.” taxi on their own engine. All this is profita-
While the industry’s current sustainability ble. Airports can be carbon neutral using
LASTING IMPACT focus is primarily on alternative fuels, LED lamps and better building insulation –
“The Solar Impulse airplane flight around the Piccard points out there are numerous meas- this is profitable too.”
world was an impactful symbol – we showed ures across every aspect of the aviation and
what we can do with renewable energy and aerospace ecosystem that could bring signifi- OFFSET EMISSIONS
clean technologies,” Piccard says. “After this cant results. He cites three specific areas of However, jet fuel is aviation’s number-one
success I wanted to make it more practical improvement: operational procedures, contributor to greenhouse gases, and several
and easier for people to understand.” technology and politics. airlines (including Air France and JetBlue)
Piccard launched his “1,000 solutions “If a jumbo jet makes a constant-descent recently announced that they will offset their
to protect the planet” challenge to collect, approach rather than an incremental fleets’ emissions to become carbon neutral.
select and label technologies, products or approach, you can save 1t of kerosene for Delta Air Lines, Lufthansa and United Air-
systems that protect the environment, but at every landing,” he says. lines have made investments in biofuels. In
the same time generate financial benefits and “If you have more direct routes across re- this way, airlines have begun to reduce their
secure jobs. gions, it would be profitable. Right now you carbon footprint and move towards the indus-

38 | Flight International | 28 January-3 February 2020 flightglobal.com