At Air Canada, we’re committed to safety, our employees, the communities we serve and the environment we all share, every day and over the long haul too.
Companies do well by doing good. But Air Canada’s strong commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility is also driven by the belief that doing good is an obligation that serves as its own reward.
This month, the most recent summary of Air Canada’s sustainability achievements, with the supporting information tables, is available on aircanada.com. Our 2017 reporting covers four areas: safety, the environment, employees, and our support of communities. Of these, the environment is most readily associated with sustainability.
So we were proud to be recognized as the 2018 Eco-Airline of the Year in a global survey by Air Transport World. Among our initiatives was participation, through five biofuel flights, in a study led by the National Research Council on contrails.
We increased our commitment to recycling, for example setting a goal of 50 percent domestic onboard recycling efficiency by 2020. And there were other measures, such as a pilot project to provide employees public transit discounts and partnerships with green groups to reuse old uniforms and other items.
In safety, we passed rigorous safety audits by Transport Canada and the International Air Transport Association. With respect to employees, who fully embrace and give life to our responsibility activities, we won awards, including being named one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers for the fifth consecutive year. In communities, the Air Canada Foundation supported over 370 charities and thousands of sick or disadvantaged children through such things as breakfast programs.
Our airline aided flood and fire victims in Canada, while in the Caribbean and United States we flew 50 extra flights, equalling 10,000 seats, to move people out of the way of hurricanes.
On an individual level, we helped an ill child’s wish come true with an airplane tour and we flew a rare Bullock’s oriole home to the West Coast from Ottawa after it had been blown off course while migrating.
The success of Air Canada’s sustainability programs is due to our determination to do better every year. In this spirit, we undertook an extensive stakeholder consultation to ensure our resources are directed at the right priorities, and we look forward to telling you about these in a reformatted report for 2018.
Calin’s column appears every month in enRoute Magazine, Air Canada’s award-winning in-flight magazine found onboard all Air Canada, Air Canada Rouge and Air Canada Express flights. This edition is from the November 2018 issue.
