JetBlue To Plant 83,000 Trees To Honor Customers

by Tanya Irwin, Apr 19, 2012, 11:52 PM

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JetBlue is pledging to plant 83,000 trees -- or one to honor each customer flying this Earth Day, April 21.

The New York-based airline will plant an estimated 83,000 trees throughout municipalities in North and Northwest Haiti through August. The trees will help to rebuild areas impacted by the 2010 earthquake including the municipalities of Arcahaie, Cabaret, and Montrouis.

Hundreds of volunteers alongside JetBlue crew members will also plant nearly 100 trees on April 21 in Long Island City, Queens as part of the airline's 5th Annual “One Thing That's Green” program, which is part of the “Color NYC Green.”

New Yorkers interested in planting trees on April 21 are asked to register in advance at www.jetblue.com/trees. The day-long festivities, in partnership with the New York Restoration Project and MillionTreesNYC, will take place rain or shine.

Planting one tree for every customer flying with the carrier on Earth Day shows the airline's true pro-environment commitment, said Icema Gibbs, director corporate social responsibility, JetBlue Airways.

"One tree per customer and our call to action for people to do One Thing That's Green reinforces our belief that we can work together to make the world a better place, one company, one person, and one act at a time," Gibbs said.

In New York alone, the airline's tree-planting efforts over the past four years have included more than 1,900 volunteers with more than 1,200 trees planted.

Those unable to participate on-site in Queens can join the more than 125,000 people who have already committed to maintaining a greener lifestyle by making a pledge at http://www.jetblue.com/pledge.

Now through April 30, participants pledging will be entered to win prizes, including two round-trip tickets and a $500 Getaways gift certificate every month for an entire year, eco-vacations, and eco-friendly appliances.

The airline also is partnering with Carbonfund.org Foundation, which allows customers to offset carbon dioxide emissions generated by individual air travel through the purchase of carbon offsets. To set an example, JetBlue has purchased carbon offsets for all company business travel since 2008.

JetBlue brings environmental awareness to many areas of the airline's operation, including saving paper on-board by not offering an in-flight magazine and eliminating waste by encouraging customers to use their own headsets to enjoy the free in-flight entertainment.

Other environmentally friendly measures include cleaning aircraft engines with an eco-wash process that saves up to one million gallons of fuel annually and eliminates carbon dioxide emissions by 21.9 pounds for every gallon of fuel saved.

The airline also uses just one engine to taxi to and from runways and connects aircraft to ground power at the gate rather than using the engines to power air conditioning. Lighter and fewer A320 seats trim 930 pounds off each aircraft delivery since 2008.

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