Last month, hundreds of volunteers, including Air Canada employees, took part in shoreline cleanup events across Canada to mark International Coastal Cleanup Day.

Air Canada was the official travel sponsor for the Ocean Wise hosted events in Vancouver and Toronto. In addition, Air Canada organized a shoreline cleanup in Saguenay, which was supported by Ocean Wise. At all three events, a total of eight kilometres of beach was cleaned.

"We are incredibly proud to participate in this year’s Ocean Wise shoreline cleanup events in three Canadian communities where our employees work and live. We commend and thank everyone who contributed their time to participate in this cross-country event.  At Air Canada, we are committed to leaving less and doing more in the environment, and we are happy to support, collaborate and participate with partners such as Ocean Wise to have a greater impact on our shared goals of environmental sustainability," said Linda Kudzman, Director Environment Management Programs at Air Canada.

At the three events, over 45 Air Canada employees joined efforts to leave less waste and helped collect more than 215 kilograms of waste from the shoreline. Some of the items collected included:

More than 5,000 cigarette butts, 1,471 pieces of plastic smaller than 2.5 centimetres, 655 bottle caps, 761 food wrappers and 465 paper items.

The Ocean Wise Shoreline Cleanup (formerly known as the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup) is one of Canada’s largest direct-action programs. Since 1994, the Shoreline Cleanup has hosted 30,542 cleanups, collecting more than 2.1 million kilograms of trash along Canada’s shorelines.

Air Canada strives to integrate environmental considerations into its decision-making and business processes and has set an ambitious target to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 throughout its global operations. More information about Air Canada's environmental goals and other programs can be found at: www.aircanada.com/csr and leaveless.aircanada.com.