Carbon (CO2) Footprint Compensation
At The Land of the Sky - Skydive Empuriabrava, we love to make people fly and to offer the exceptional, unforgettable experience skydiving provides. Nevertheless, we are aware that this activity emits a considerable amount of CO2 through burning aviation fuel.
In 2020 Skydive Empuriabrava joins the worldwide challenge of tackling global climate change. Concerned and anxious to collaborate with the improvement of the environment, the company incorporates a more ecological approach to its Social Responsibility Policy. Being one of the most recognized and largest skydiving centres in the world, it wants its ethical responsibility to comply with its principles and one of them is to respect our nature and the environment. Skydive Empuriabrava emits between 870 and 1100 tons of CO2 per year due to the continuous activity of skydiving and initiation flights in light aircraft. With the new measure adopted, Skydive Empuriabrava offsets all the C02 it emits due to skydiving and initiation flights in light aircraft, complying with the strict international standards of the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS). During the years 2020-2022 the company cooperated with partners Klima Invest and Care All Foundation, and from 2023 with the European CO2 trading system Sendeco2.
HOW DOES CLIMATE NEUTRALITY WORK?
The principle of climate neutrality is based on the idea of a global balance of climate: The negative effects of CO2 and other greenhouse gases emitted have a global impact - thus it is irrelevant, where emissions are produced. Climate is global. Consequently, this results in the opportunity to compensate emission by taking measures with additional positive climate effects anywhere on the globe. Climate neutrality can be reached as our emissions are identified and compensated with an opposite equivalent climate impact by supporting certified climate protection projects. These important projects can only be carried out with financial resources obtained from the sale of CO2 reduction rights by organizations.
Klima Invest - Project in Brazil, Baía de Gujará
Forest Conservation
supported by Skydive Empuriabrava
FORESTS ABSORB CO2: For hundreds of years forests have been suppliers of wood, however, they have meanwhile also become an important aspect of the climate protection debate. Deforestation is responsible for a large amount of CO2 emissions and together with other human activities, an increasing amount is being released into the atmosphere. The amount of CO2 emissions is thus exceeding the ability of forests to absorb CO2, and currently is only a quarter being compensated by vegetation. It is therefore of great importance that the existing forests are being protected.
LOCATION: NORTHER BRAZIL is one of the water-richest areas in the country, which results in unique vegetation. Uncontrolled deforestation as a result of illegal lumbering, settlement and spreading of livestock farming, threatens this special ecosystem. The forest conservation project has successfully protected 90.000 hectares of natural habitat and thus preserved the home of pumas and jaguars, night monkeys, alligators, piranhas as well as rare dolphins, that only exists in the Amazon basin.
SOCIAL BENEFIT: The project does not stop by protecting the unique habitat. It is as well providing benefits for the local population. 100 families are involved in the project and they receive expert advice regarding agriculture and forest conservation. The inhabitants learn to manage the forest sustainably by for instance using gardening areas to restore surfaces and produce seeds. Beehives and fishing areas have been created and a school has been constructed, to improve the living conditions of the local population.
