NetJets pledges to fly cleaner

In part, with carbon reductions from 3Degrees

NORTHJERSEY.COM -- NetJets Inc., the largest private-jet operator at Teterboro Airport, has outlined a plan to reduce the air pollution it creates, joining a growing list of carriers to introduce carbon-emission offset programs.

The Woodbridge-based company, which operates a fleet of more than 600 aircraft, said this month it has set a goal to cut waste, energy use and carbon emissions from internal operations by 10 percent in the next two years. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Santulli said Wednesday in an e-mail response to questions that the company will spend "several hundreds of thousands of dollars" a year to offset carbon emissions from internal flight operations.

NetJet's fast-growing European division will require customers who own fractional shares of jets to buy carbon offsets at a cost of about $5,500 per year. The offsets are being offered as an option to U.S. customers.

The offsets for American customers are acquired through a San Francisco company, 3Degrees, and derived from investments in projects ranging from a New Zealand wind farm to a project to remove methane from manure at a Wisconsin dairy farm.

NetJets follows British private jet broker Air Partner, which announced an optional carbon-offset program in January. Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines and other major U.S. carriers have begun this year offering customers options to purchase carbon offsets for their flights. British Airways has offered customers an offset option through its Web site since 2005. Scandinavian Airlines started a similar program in March.

"We believe that this 'opt-in' approach is the most feasible and workable for our [U.S.] owners," Santulli wrote. "We are confident that it will make a real difference and hope a large share of our owners/customers participate – as I am doing with respect to my own flying," he wrote

NetJets, owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., also will invest hundreds of thousands of dollars this year in a project at Princeton University and the University of California, Davis, to develop cleaner jet fuel.

Aviation -- including commercial airlines, cargo carriers, military transports and general aviation -- accounts for about 2 percent of global carbon-dioxide emissions, according to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The panel was formed by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations.

"NetJets' commitment is absolutely a leadership one," said Dan Kalafatas, president and chief operating officer of 3Degrees, which helps about 150 corporations with environmental and energy-saving strategies.

NetJets, which pioneered the fractional shares jet-ownership model, increased revenue by $759 million last year to earn $143 million before taxes, turning around an $80 million pre-tax loss in 2005.