Southwest's eco-friendly jet: You are now green to move about the country
Filed under: Energy, Southwest Airlines, Green
Air travel has deservedly gotten a bad rap from the green set. Jet engines spew out huge quantities of carbon, and flying is by far the most energy inefficient way to travel. But that hasn't stopped airlines from trying to paint a green tint on their fuselages. Witness the latest offering from Southwest Air (LUV) -- a "greener" plane.Southwest unveiled the concept on Oct. 21 -- a standard Boeing 737-300 with many interior modifications to make the plane more eco-friendly. The green plane will incorporate modular carpet from Interface. The carpet is 100 percent recyclable; after it becomes worn and torn, it can be returned to Interface and remanufactured in a completely carbon-neutral process. Southwest will be testing two types of green leather seat covers that are lighter and more durable than traditional airplane seat covers. One of them, e-Leather, is actually made from recycled materials discarded by leather manufacturers.
Another green improvement will be a life vest pouch that is one pound lighter per passenger. The pouch will also be smaller, leaving more room under seats for carry-on items. Several other small changes, including a move to aluminum seat parts to replace less durable plastic parts, and the inclusion of lighter foam in the seat fillings, will add up to a five pound per seat weight reduction. The total weight savings will be roughly 472 pounds per plane. That equates to roughly a 9,500 gallon reduction in jet fuel used per plane over the course of a year, according to China View.
While these moves by Southwest are laudable, they do little to address the growing concerns that jet contrails are contributing to global warming, as explained by National Geographic News Service. And airline traffic is believed to contribute between 2 and 3 percent of all carbon dioxide gas emissions, a sum that is far out of proportion on a per mile basis as compared to other forms of transportation.
Airlines are acutely aware of their eco-image problem and are trying different tactics to reduce their carbon footprints and fuel consumption. According to the blog of carbon mitigation company TerraPass, an Emirates Airlines flight from Dubai, UAE, to San Francisco in December 2008 was able to slice 6 percent off its fuel consumption through simple steps such as washing the plane before takeoff, using a tug to pull the plane to the runway, and using auxilliary power at the terminal rather than power from running the jet engines. The 8,000 mile green flight was also nearly 45 minutes shorter than standard flights on that route. Look for even more efforts to cut weight on flights and to cast a greener hue on airlines as the pressure to combat global warming grows stronger in the coming years.
Alex Salkever is Senior Writer at AOL Daily Finance covering technology and greentech. Follow him on twitter @alexsalkever, read his articles, or email him at alex@dailyfinance.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-23-2009 @ 11:02AM
W. C. Peterson said...
How can jet contrails contribute to global warming? They're white, which reflects the energy from the sun back into space on the daylight side. They could help trap heat on the night side, but there is less plane traffic on the night side, so the contrails are actually a net positive effect. Google "albedo' for more information. I think global warming is more affected by cloud cover than anything else. Clouds on the day side with no clouds on the night side tend to cool the planet. Clouds on the night side with no clouds on the day side will heat the planet.
Anybody that lived a few years in North Dakota realizes that.
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10-26-2009 @ 1:31AM
Ralph said...
I agree it's incorrect to say that contrails contribute to climate change. Rather, it's the jet exhaust that does so. Consider that each long-distance hop uses some two tons of jet fuel. For the relatively long-chain hydrocarbons which constitute the fuel, almost all the mass burned is released as CO2, at the same time the combustion is removing oxygen from the atmosphere to provide the two oxygens in each CO2 molecule. Add to this the scary fact that all this CO2 is injected directly into a vulnerable part of our atmosphere, more than 6 miles above Earth's surface.
10-23-2009 @ 12:15PM
Bob Keir said...
Have all of these GREEN interior modifications been tested to see if they are susceptible to fire? Much of the existing not so green interior appointments are fire resistant for a reason. It would silly for a plane to be less safe for fire simply because the eco-weenies want to reduce the carbon contrail of a 737.
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10-23-2009 @ 12:52PM
Back In Time? said...
The 8,000 mile green flight was also nearly 45 minutes shorter than standard flights on that route. Must be that newfangled Kool-Aid Capacitor. . . . . . Fizzies and Yahoo do not generate the terrestrial, time -space continuum warp necessary to accomplish this, but with Kool-Aid "yes we can".
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10-23-2009 @ 5:00PM
DMP said...
Wake up people before our government passes another huge Tax upon us in the name of Cap and Trade bill. This is merely another tax on everything that supposedly emits carbon into the air. The House of Reps have already passed it by just a few votes with some Democrats voting againsgst it saying that it will be a huge drain on our economy which is already in a huge mess. It will raise the price of everything from our Electric bills to cars, to gasoline, and the list will continue. There are many more scientist that will tell you that Global Warming isn't true, we have actually been cooling for years now. Search the web, don't believe everything Al Gore and all the eco freaks want you to believe. Obama needs this to pass to help pay for all the continued wasteful spending our government keeps doing. It's also going to shove more jobs overseas where places such as China who don't care about pollution at all only keeping there slave labor billion plus people working. I think we should all care about our environment of course and do what we can to breath cleaner air but don't believe the Global Warming scam, don't trust me, just research, there is still time to expose this scam. Please email your Congressman and US Senators and tell them to VOTE NO for Cap and Trade legislation
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10-23-2009 @ 1:21PM
Gary said...
Actually, clouds contribute to warming either day or night, they trap heat in the atmosphere. No cloud cover allows radiant energy to escape into space. Thats why Venus has a thick cloudy atmosphere and is 900 degrees F. It wouldn't be near that hot without the heavy carbon dioxide, which is what we are going through now. Jet engines burn jet fuel, which is just high octane gas. Result= carbon dioxide, "the" greenhouse gas.
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10-23-2009 @ 4:26PM
russ said...
no gas kerosine
10-23-2009 @ 1:25PM
Dingo said...
And do Al Gore and all of his liberal buddies still jet around in their private jets, ride in their super limos and live in their energy eating estates while the rest of us cram into those energy saving Southwest buses?
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10-23-2009 @ 3:10PM
Charles Carter said...
I have observed a lot of jet contrails spread out and converge into thin cloud formations that actually made it a little cooler. I noticed that on many occasions.
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10-23-2009 @ 3:18PM
Carole said...
OVER SHOOTING THE RUNWAY IS FREE WITH THIS AIRLINE!!!!
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10-23-2009 @ 3:16PM
Charles Carter said...
New idea. Jets with no engines. Pedals at all passenger seats and passengers pedal to turn props. Electric prods under seats to get them to pedal harder for take-offs. Dang, where is that address to the patent office.
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10-23-2009 @ 4:03PM
George said...
I think all the steps are great - except - running aircraft off airport elctrical power rather than the jets during preflight and loading. Any signs of mechanical difficulties with the engines can show up during the run up and the engines are at at least minimum operating loads and temperatures after running on the ground - again making it more likely that problem will arise on the ground when they get spooled up before and during taxi and take off rather than 200 feet in the air.
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10-23-2009 @ 4:31PM
clank mulligan said...
the global warming is due to the gloom factor substraneously applied during the interphase, therefore negatronly gooching the plam.
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10-24-2009 @ 10:46AM
David said...
Typical Southwest. They will do anything to please the "bus" people who only care about saving a penny. Not how safe the airline is.
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10-23-2009 @ 4:32PM
russ said...
kerosene
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10-24-2009 @ 12:13AM
Florida said...
If Southwest wants to save 472 pounds on each plane it should put a restriction on its passengers. Back pockets can be no longer than 3 feet apart from each other.
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10-24-2009 @ 1:03PM
Dennis said...
Why are airline getting the bad rap? It's the same as blaming car dealerships about their car's fuel efficiency.
Last time I checked, Boeing and Airbus design, build and manufacture a large percentage of the planes in service today. Boeing cannot even design a new and improved plane without delays and government help. How about holding their asses to the fire?
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10-24-2009 @ 6:19PM
ben said...
I think they are just trying to offset the fat people. Seriously I should get a discount I am 40 lbs lighter than the FAA flyer.
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10-24-2009 @ 10:23PM
Hugh Walenski said...
Global climatologists, corporate CEOs and leading politicians have no idea what they are doing. Clearly the experts with all of the answers are right here in the comments section. You go, heroes! Internet commenters, solving all of humanity's missteps one tasty nugget of wisdom at a time.
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