Air Travel Carbon Offsetting: Making Civil Aviation More Environmentally Friendly?

Even though less than half of the world’s airlines offer carbon offsetting, does the practice really offer genuine environmental benefits?

By: Ringo Bones

With our global climate about to reach the point of no return when it comes to the ongoing climate change issue, it seems that every possible scheme has been on offer by every commercial and industrial sector to save us from climate catastrophe. Even though the airline industry forms just 2-percent of overall man-made green house gas emissions, it has become one of the most criticized for not doing enough to clean up its act. So clean up it did. One of these schemes is called carbon offsetting, but does it really work? But first, here’s a brief primer on carbon offsetting.

Carbon offsetting is the process of compensating for greenhouse gas emissions through schemes that are designed to make corresponding reductions in emissions from other parts of the economy. From donating to wind farms to replanting or protecting parcels of forest in at-risk areas, these offset programs offer a diverse amount of options for air travelers. Whilst it seems a fairly straightforward system that ensures you are making the sustainable decision transport-wise, it has drawn a fair share of condemnation from environmentalists.

On delving deeper into the definition of carbon offsets, it becomes clear why airline offset schemes have become controversial. Balancing the carbon dioxide emitted by your air travel through the planting of several trees in South America does not involve the solitary act of placing a tree in the soil. In order to plant the trees, there are several steps. Firstly, the trees must be bought from a supplier, transported to a warehouse before being driven out to the tree planting site that also needs to be prepared prior to the tree seedlings being planted – all of these actions produce their own share of carbon dioxide emissions, which are not always taken into account. If your tree planting offset scheme produces more carbon dioxide emissions than your flight – or by not buying any emissions offset at all – then it is really not an offset. Would spending the carbon offset funds by paying off persons who own large track of forested land to not allow their property to be developed into a residential neighborhood or an industrial farmland be a more low-carbon solution?

Beyond Meat’s Recent IPO Surge: Monetizing Environmental Concerns?

With both environmental and health concerns may be driving its recent IPO surge, will Beyond Meat eventually make the Wolves of Wall Street go vegan for the sake of our environment? 

By: Ringo Bones

During the company’s first day of trading at Wall Street back in Thursday, May 2, 2019, the share price of Beyond Meat surged 163 percent, thus signaling surprising interest in a new generation of companies that are creating plant-based alternative to meat. Beyond Meat, which makes vegetarian burgers and sausages, began trading at $25 a share on the Nasdaq stock exchange and ended the day at $65.75. The stock’s first-day pop is one of the biggest in recent IPO history. In the last decade, only two other companies – both of them biotech start-ups – had bigger increases on their first days of trading on major American stock markets, according to the data from the University of Florida professor Jay Ritter.

Beyond Meat is the first ever plant-based meat-alternative company to go public, but it is part of a growing industry of start-ups looking to replace animal agriculture. And in recent weeks have provided several indications that the business is gaining traction largely because of growing environmental and health concerns in both the raising and the consumption of meat. A study conducted back in 2005 have shown that if all Americans reduced their overall meat consumption by just 10-percent, the resulting reduction in overall carbon footprint is akin to taking 20 million cars off the road. Does this mean that the recent IPO surge of Beyond Meat is a sign that the so-called Wolves of Wall Street are now monetizing their own and everyone else's environmental concerns? 

Beyond Meat’s biggest competitor, Impossible Foods, teamed up with Burger King to roll out a meatless-version of the Whopper sandwich last month. Burger King announced this week that it would offer the sandwich at all of its restaurants in the United States, after a trial in the company’s St. Louis restaurants exceeded expectations. A day after Burger King’s announcement, McDonald’s chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, told analysts that his company was “paying close attention” to the trend and considering whether it will develop a meatless alternative to its hamburgers. In the lead-up to the Beyond Meat IPO, the poultry company Tyson Foods said it sold its early stake at Beyond Meat, in part because the food conglomerate is developing its own plant-based protein.

Like many high-tech companies that are debuting on Wall Street this year, Beyond Meat is losing money - $30 million last year – but revenue grew faster than last year’s losses, increasing 170 percent to $88 million. And like its competitors, Beyond Meat pitched investors on the idea that its plant-based burgers and sausages can appeal to traditional meat eaters and break out a niche market that vegetarian alternatives have traditionally occupied.

The start-up, based in the Los Angeles area, has tried to mimic the texture and taste of meat with ingredients like pea protein and beet juice. But it has also argued for the environmental and health benefits of moving away from meat. “I see it as a movement,” Beyond Meat’s chief executive, Ethan Brown, said in an interview back in Thursday, May 2, 2019. “We’re tapping into something within customers – within the human race – that is important.” Beyond Meat’s products are available in 15,000 supermarkets and several fast-food chains.

Leading up to the IPO, Beyond Meat steadily increased the number of shares it planned to sell and the price where it projected the shares to begin trading. The company ended up raising around $240 million in the public offering, which is more than it had raise from private markets. When it last raised money from its investors last fall, the company was valued at $1.35 billion, according to Pitchbook. Beyond Meat manage to finish the Thursday May 2, 2019 trading day to be worth $3.8 billion. The holdings of Beyond Meat’s founder Ethan Brown, are now worth more than $200 million.