MAGAZINE OF THE MARCO POLO CLUB Spin ... - Cathay Pacific

INSIDE CX
Fly greener:
Cathay Pacific’s
fleet of newer
aircraft reduces
the airline’s
environmental
impact
44 THE CLUB
Team Green
Your Marco Polo Club statements are now delivered online – another
Cathay Pacifi c initiative to improve service and also help the environment
BY MATHEW SCOTT
Click, and you get your monthly Marco Polo Club statement.
Click, and you save a lot of paper. The electronic delivery of
Marco Polo Club information provides all your points and
transaction records and enables you to manage your miles (see the
box opposite). But this more efficient service is just one element of
Cathay Pacific’s wide-ranging environmental strategy.
Undoubtedly, addressing global climate change is now one
of the most pressing issues facing our world. As an environm environmen-
tally and socially responsible business, Cathay PPacifi
c
recognizes the urgency and importan importance of
climate change and the need to pla play its
part in fi nding solutions to the prob problem.
But tackling our environmental impact im
is nothing new for Cathay Pac Pacifi c. It
has been working in this
area
since the 1990s when it was one of the fi rst airlines to report on its
environmental performance, as it has done each year since 1998.
What has changed is the priority accorded to environment within
the company.
Recognising the growing importance of the environment and
climate change within the aviation industry, 2008 saw the establishment
of a new Environmental Affairs Department with a dedicated
team of specialists, under the leadership of Dominic Purvis, who will
be known to many of you from his previous role as General Manager,
Cathay Pacific Loyalty Programmes Ltd. Dominic says: “Having now
established the nerve centre to co-ordinate our policies and
programmes means that we can influence what the company
does at the strategic level going forward. We’ve already spent
time identifying where and how changes can be made and set
an agenda for action. The task now is to deliver. Clearly, there is so
much we could do, but ultimately we need to find practical ways
to reduce our fuel burn and hence our emissions.”
He goes on: “we’re constantly looking for ways that we can
reduce our environment and climate-change impact, both
on the ground and in the air. As well as looking at what we
do at our offices, international airports and in flight, we’re also
working with the aerospace manufacturers to develop new,
more environmentally efficient aircraft technologies for the