The  airlines,  CSR  and  Voluntary  Carbon  Offsetting

After having dealt with the consumers point of view it was interesting to investigate how the airlines think and how they act in relation to the environmental issues connected to their industry, thus the following question was posed and sought answered.

What  are  the  airlines  currently  doing  when  it  comes  to  CSR  and  VCO?  

To get an understanding of the initiative and possibilities that exist in the airline industry, the airlines initiatives will here be analysed and discussed with the modern theories of CSR in mind.

This analysis and discussion will divide the companies according to regional positions, to see if there are any resemblances and correlations between the geographically sorted airlines.

The investigation of the Asian airlines and their CSR policies proved to be difficult as there was very little, to be exact none, to be found. Based on the theory regarding the environmental hierarchy

airlines impact on society and environment and especially how the airline seeks to help solve these problems, as anything their customers could be interested in knowing. Or that it in any case could be something the customers demand knowledge about. This being the case the countries in which the Asian airlines primarily consist of societies that are situated in the lower part of the environmental hierarchy of needs, implying that they as a community currently do not have the additional capacity that enables them to begin thinking more about their environment and how they can save it.

Looking at the North American companies it was very easy to find information regarding the CSR and environmentally friendly programmes. Both companies had found it important to have this information readily available for their customers, which can only mean that they believe that it strengthens their competitiveness to communicate to and with their customers regarding the climate changes their as an industry and the customers as users of this industry are responsible for, thus indicating a higher level of commitment to environmental needs in society than that, which was seen in Asia. However it was interesting that the American airlines had two different approaches to VCO. Delta airlines had been amongst the frontrunners and are still very committed to offering it to their customers and Southwest airlines had deliberately chosen not to include VCO as a part of their CSR offerings as they rather believed in using the resources elsewhere. This could be a sign that Delta is committed to their VCO programme because of two things, either because they truly believe in the case or because they believe in the promotional benefits that it brings to the company.

In either case it is certain that there here, is talk of some “shade of green” company, but the shade differs, depending on which of the two situations there is the case. If it is a matter of Delta airlines being committed to the case and believes that it can help improve their business in the future they are, what Ginsberg & Bloom (2004) would define as a shaded green company, doing it for the product, the promotion and the price (symbolising that the environmental and company-improving qualities surpass the expenses related to it. If they, however primarily do it to promote themselves as a green company, Ginsberg & Bloom (2004), would define them as a defensive green company.

Whether they are one or the other is hard to say, without having more knowledge of their commitment to the problems and this goes for both Delta airlines as well as Southwest air, but keeping in mind that for both companies’ goals and the achievement of these seemed rather undefined and mostly just mentioned for the sake of mentioning it, it could be a strong indication

that they first and foremost do it for appearances sake, and less for the sake of the environment, making both companies defensive green.

The European and the North American airlines are not very different in the accessibility and communication of their CSR programmes as well as the VCO schemes. So it can be assumed that they reasons are very similar. But there are some apparent differences though. First of all both Easyjet and SAS offers the customers the possibilities to buy VCO vouchers directly on their websites, committing to that program and not disregarding it as Southwest air had done. And secondly both in terms of the goals and the ways to reach them, the European airlines were much more specific. This could be indicative of the fact that the European consumers are more demanding and expecting of their companies, and would not settle for a programme in which one of the goals were to “set a goal for this during 2012”. Therefore it could be concluded that would lean more to the shaded green companies, rather than the defensive green.

6.3.1 The  future  for  CSR  

To be able to discuss the next question it is relevant to evaluate the current status of CSR, both in terms of reasons for why the airlines doing what they do, but also to understand what the trends and tendencies are in the future, in relation to what the customers expect of the airlines.

From the theory section it was possible to see that CSR comes from stakeholder theory and as such is an expression for the need there has been, in recent times, for defining the roles a company plays for its various stakeholders. But with the recent discussion of whether or not CSR actually has the acclaimed effect and if it is the correct way for companies to focus on their surroundings, it is ideal to use this opportunity to see if the thoughts behind CSR actually is what is holding back the good results of CSR. It is especially relevant to discuss, in a thesis such as this, as VCO must be seen to be a part of modern day CSR policies but has yet to provide palpable positive outcomes.

From the surveys both conducted and evaluated as a part of this thesis, and the results from the Klimabarometer, it is evident that the consumers expect that they elected politicians will rise to act if something life threatening occurs, as for example climate change as a result of companies bad behaviour. However, if this is the case, it is not relevant to discuss stakeholder theory, as stakeholder theory defines the companies duty to serve their stakeholders (including their surroundings) and not only themselves, but consumers then instead depend upon shareholder theory. If the people in a country does not trust the companies to act responsible unless be forced to be so by the government, it cannot be relevant for the companies to try to act responsible before they are asked to, but instead, going by shareholder theory, focus on making a profit, paying the

promised their voters. Ensuring that the people’s power and thoughts are carried out, as they want them, and not defined by what a company thinks is right. But if the case is that companies should act completely on their own accord, and not pay any attention to the negative effects of it there is something wrong with the environmental hierarchy of needs saying that communities as a whole will begin to be more invested in their surroundings, which is true for what many respondents also replied in the studies. The respondents moreover said that they, expected governments to handle bad situations but also expected that companies would enable a better future for them selves and the world, so the question is what the companies then should do/follow, if it is not CSR theory, to accommodate both their own as well as their customers expectations.

For the companies the goal must be to ensure that they have a future to operate in and thus secure impendent revenue, like the theory of sustainability suggests. So by acting responsibly to day they might have secured their own survival in the future, a theory that is very applicable for the airline industry as they, by reducing and focusing on reducing their customers CO2 emissions in the present they might avoid a future in which flying is very limited, due to the lack of early control on emissions. Looking at the airlines CSR programmes they are currently focusing on this but being very aware of the fact that if they act alone, it might, and will probably, damage their competitive advantages. But as the companies are investigating this as CSR – something they are doing for the stakeholders, it might limit them in seeing the possibilities that might present themselves, if they were primarily thinking about how it would benefit their shareholders in the long run. Right now, as Martin Porsgaard explained, they are all waiting for the restrictions being tightened from the EU, but if they were acting for them selves, and making it a part of their focus on innovation and repositioning they might be able to push both the EU but also the ICAO to act faster, for everyone’s sake. In their attempt to free companies of CSR thinking Porter and Kramer (2011) also focused on the problems with CSR as being something that have been pushed on the companies from outside, not something they felt were necessary internally, once again attacking this aspect of stakeholder theory. They, like the theory of sustainability, focus on companies finding the motivation for acting more responsible in activities that will benefit them as well as society, so it does not, like CSR sometimes does, look like an “externally expected” waste of shareholders money. This can also be tied into the theory of the environmental hierarchy of needs, where the company act sustainable to secure a future, by improving their own chances of future success, that will enable a move into the

“Sustainable” tier in the pyramid.

6.3.2 The  airlines,  CSR  and  VCO  in  sum  

As seen from the analysis and discussion above there are very big differences when it comes what the airlines see important depending on the situation of their surroundings. From this analysis it is obvious that there is no need to discuss how the Asian airlines are currently handling their CSR programmes and VCO because they are non-existent. Whereas both the North American and the European airlines are much more appropriate because they actually have CSR programmes and for three out of fours sake, have VCO as a product offering. For these companies the research regarding modern day CSR showed that it could be beneficial for the airlines to focus on their internal gain from acting sustainable instead of reacting to external pressure, thus disregarding CSR but instead focusing on CSV and sustainability.