Etihad Encourages Customers to Reduce Carbon Footprint by Adopting Mangroves

(28 Feb 2022)  Etihad Airways, in collaboration with Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, has established a Mangrove Forest to provide passengers, corporate accounts and partners the ability to adopt mangroves in Abu Dhabi and reduce their carbon footprint.

In line with the Abu Dhabi Mangrove initiative by the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, the Etihad Mangrove Forest is the culmination of multiple joint programmes between Etihad, the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, Jubail Island, The Storey Group and other partners to support mangrove conservation projects in the nation and develop new carbon sinks and natural resources to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Using a digital platform, Etihad Mangrove Forest will allow passengers and partners to invest in carbon removal for AED 18.5 (USD5) per mangrove, where the individual trees can be tracked online or through an app.

Jubail Island Mangroves in Abu Dhabi

Those who adopt a tree receive a unique tree code, geolocation, and virtual access to their tree for the next 10 years. Trees can also be gifted to loved ones and named to create an even more unique experience and bond.

Investors can even “chat” with their chatbot enabled tree and access data, including CO2 consumption metrics which can be tracked and offset against emissions.

“The Etihad Mangrove Forest is the next step in our sustainability journey to ensure our responsibility to remove carbon from the atmosphere is progressing. The intent is to create forests on all continents we fly to, and to provide our guests with an engaging opportunity to take part in the solution,” said Tony Douglas, Group Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Aviation Group. “We know offsetting unavoidable emissions alone isn’t going to solve the climate crisis, we need to actually remove carbon from the atmosphere. Even with the best-case scenario global decarbonisation drive, we will still need to remove 6-10 Gt of CO2 per year by 2050 to stay below 1.5 °C global warming. The Etihad Mangrove Forest will contribute to this task. We invite and encourage our guests and partners to join us on this journey as we know from first-hand experience it is a topic many care passionately about and will impact us all.”

Globally, mangroves store approximately 6.4 billion tonnes of carbon, almost four times more than other terrestrial forests. At a rate of just more than 12kg a year, the average mangrove captures over 300kgs of CO2 in its 25-year lifetime, helping to fight the effects of climate change such as coral bleaching and coastline degradation, and support biodiversity and wildlife.

The Etihad Mangroves Forest site has been chosen specifically due to its protected status under the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, which guarantees its ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere for at least 100-years.

Etihad Guest Members will be able to invest in the Etihad Mangrove Forest using Etihad Guest Miles in the Reward Shop from March, while a range of additional options to meet corporate partner requirements and provide bundled-offset options packaged within the ticket for individual travellers are being developed.

Dr. Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri – Secretary General – Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, said, “Abu Dhabi Mangrove Programme aims to establish the emirate as a global hub for research and innovation in support of the conservation of mangroves. Through the programme we aim to streamline all mangrove efforts launched from Abu Dhabi under one umbrella, to assist in achieving the government goals to reach net-zero by 2050.”

See also: Hotel Waste, Single-Use Plastic and Climate Change - HD Video and Podcast Interview with WWF.