Aviation isn't known as the most eco-friendly industry. Carbon emissions aside, running an airline produces an incredible amount of waste. Everything from uneaten food to outdated uniforms is potential landfill fodder.
Southwest Airlines, for one, has decided to do something about it. After a large-scale redesign of many of its 737 aircraft, the carrier found itself with an excess of 80,000 leather seat covers -- enough to fill the Empire State Building.
"We had this idea of 'could we do something with this leather beyond recycling it or shredding it? Could we repurpose it?'" says Marilee McInnis, the airline's senior manager of culture and communications.
Following the advice of Bill Tiffany, a Southwest VP who grew up in Kenya, the airline started looking towards Africa for recipients of the used leather. Rather than just donating the goods and leaving it there, the airline decided to take a more holistic approach, giving the materials to NGOs that will use them to provide job training and health education.
The main partner is SOS Children's Villages Kenya, which is providing paid apprenticeships and training to orphaned youth, who in turn make shoes and soccer balls from the leather. The shoes are given to Maasai Treads, who distributes them as part of a campaign to fight debilitating foot parasites. The soccer balls are donated to Alive & Kicking, a charity that uses sport to educate young people on HIV/AIDS and malaria prevention.
Alive & Kicking uses sport for health education
COURTESY SOUTHWEST AIRLINES
"It's really easy to donate and walk away. We didn't want to do that. The leather is finite, but the skills these young people will learn will hopefully take them through their lives," says McInnis.
The redesign was itself an environmental measure. The seats were reupholstered with E-leather, a substance created from scraps the leather industry discards. The material is also lighter, reducing the weight of each aircraft by 600 pounds, and saving on fuel.
An upcycling uptick?
Though Luv Seat is perhaps the largest airline-led upcycling initiative, it is not the first of its kind. When KLM redesigned cabin crew uniforms in 2011, the carrier had the surplus fabric woven into the carpets that lined the business class cabin in the then-new 747-400 fleet. Air France last year had old uniforms recycled into car insulation, and in the past has repurposed plastic meal trays to create cutlery, and used the cables from seat backs to make headphones.
"When we launch a new product, we always ask, 'what is the life cycle of this product and what will we do with it at the end of its life?'" says Sophie Virapin, Air France's vice president of sustainable development.
It's a trend that's only likely to grow.
"This is a new area for us, and with the leather, we're just dipping our toe in the water," explains McInnis.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment