Cathay Pacific 2006 Annual Report Download - page 43

Sunnyside Club – a charity set up in 1983 to improve
the lives of handicapped youngsters in Hong Kong.
Many of our overseas offices also support local charity
efforts in the countries in which they operate.
We donated 64.7 million shares held in CNAC to
charity. The donation, valued at HK$181 million, helped
a total of 70 charitable bodies, including 63 in Hong
Kong, six in Mainland China and one Asian-wide body.
Environment
In recognising the small – but high profile – contribution
made by aviation to global carbon dioxide emissions,
Cathay Pacific is supporting all efforts to reduce fuel
wastage and maximise efficiency in its operations.
Internally, we are developing a climate change
strategy, assessing the most appropriate mechanisms
for us to address climate change, through improved
efficiency within the airline and by working closely
with industry partners. This includes continuing to
identify and implement weight-saving measures
inflight, and considering the possibility of carbon
offsetting through investment in projects elsewhere.
Carbon offsetting would be undertaken only as part
of an overall strategy that includes taking all feasible
steps to maximise efficiency for our own flight and
ground operations.
We continue to work closely with regulators and
industry partners in providing technical expertise and
support to proposals for improved routings and flight
paths. In particular, a new route over Mainland China
was approved in 2006 that is now being used by
Cathay Pacific’s European services. This route, known
as Yankee 1, saved the airline 120 hours of flight
time during the initial three months, amounting to
approximately 1,200 tonnes of fuel saved and reducing
carbon dioxide emissions by more than 3,500 tonnes.
Many more routes within our network are currently
being assessed and there is scope for significant
further improvements over the next two years.
We make every effort to instil the guiding principles of
the 4Rs – “replace, reduce, reuse and recycle” –
into every area of our business. In March 2006, we
took a significant step forward in our inflight waste
management when we implemented an initiative to
sort and separate aluminium cans and plastic bottles
on all Cathay Pacific flights arriving into Hong Kong.
This successful initiative has prevented approximately
486,788 cans and 329,370 bottles from going into
Hong Kong’s landfills. Inflight our plastic cutlery
is collected for recycling and on inbound flights
magazines are sorted for reuse or collected and sent
for recycling when obsolete. The airline will continue
to identify other recycling initiatives, at the same time
working to ensure that resources are better managed
to produce less waste.
We also continue to identify areas for resource
and waste management in our ground operations,
including placing a significant emphasis on recycling.
In our offices we collect paper, cans, printer
cartridges, CDs, plastic bottles and rechargeable
batteries. We have provided more waste separation
facilities in various training areas and classrooms at
our headquarters and in the Flight Training Centre
complex, and we also continue to investigate waste
recycling opportunities at destinations worldwide.
Communication on environmental issues has
been improved through the development of a
comprehensive environment-specific site on the
Company’s Intranet. This covers global issues such
as climate change as well as local environmental
concerns including clean air and waste management.
The site provides numerous green ideas that staff can
adopt both at home and in the office.
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Cathay Pacific Airways Limited Annual Report 2006
Corporate Responsibility