Over the years with increasing demand in air travel, the aviation industry has become a fast growing area of the economy. The aviation industry acts as lifeline for the society and the business world by providing fast and easy communication between various parts of the world. However, like other areas of human activity, air transport also affects the natural surroundings or the environment in a huge way. This damaging impact on the environment has various forms including, noise pollution, air pollution and others.
Singapore Airlines Limited (SIA) is the flag bearer of Singapore and is located at the Singapore Changi Airport (Chandra et al. 2014). They have taken initiatives to support various environmental programmes and projects that are beneficial for the environment in various ways.
This report, firstly gives a literature review on the concept of sustainability. Secondly, it discusses the policies and the initiatives undertaken by SIA to protect and preserve the environment and thirdly, it examines the area where they need to improve for future benefits of the environment.
Economic growth or development can be identified as the level of consumption that does not decreases with time and the sustainability of it poses restrictions on the usage of natural resources according to the rule of Hartwick-Solow. According to the rule, if the user-cost incurred from the efficient extraction of non-renewable resources are reinvested and fully saved in renewable capital, the amount of the resulting investment would be adequate to deliver a value of the economic stock that is constant over a period of time , thus making it possible to maintain the sustainability of development (Chang et al. 2017). Thus, the important belief that underlines these models is the perfect sustainability between various forms of capital (both physical and human capital) and the natural capital (including both non-renewable and renewable resources). According to Solow, the per capita consumption remains constant; however, there is a diminishing marginal productivity of capital, which suggests that at certain point the growth comes to a halt (Dale et al. 2014). This trend can be counter-balanced only through technical progress, which is external to the model, by allowing increase in production level and thus ensuring that the growth never stops.
Sustainable business initiative will be relating to the social, corporate as well as environmental sustainability. In a collective manner, they are having the involvement of assessing business methods as well as practices in respect of environment, organization as well as profitability and searching for means to create a positive influence in these areas.
However, economic growth in the end would lead to the limit of the natural resources, thus bringing a halt in the growth process. A study conducted by Thomas Malthus and David Ricardo very well expresses the classical point of view. Malthus and Ricardo have observed the restrictions imposed by the environment in various ways (Downs 2015). The traditional neo-classical economist, unlike the classical, does not take into account the strong binding connection between the environment and the economic system. Over the years increased economic growth and employment has led to unlimited exploitation of natural resources, which in turn has led to the constant diminishment in the reserves of natural resources. Excessive confidence in technology and ‘Pareto efficiency’ of the market mechanism, has led to the ignorance of long-term consequences of depleting natural resources as the limit of economic growth (Gaziulusoy 2015). The market has always provided a solution for such scarcities through technological progress, changes in price and by encouraging research. However, these blind faiths towards market and technological development have influenced investment policies without taking into considerations the environmental aspects. It has been researched and found that increasing growth in population has led to a substantial increase in the production and consumption level, which in turn has resulted in excessive use of natural resources and and high production of waste materials, thus causing a disruption in the initial equilibrium and the natural cycle that occurs spontaneously. Economic development entered a crisis in the ‘60s, with the first occurrence of smog, pollution and scarcity, which in turn led to the collision between the belief that economic development driven by progress is unlimited and the proof of the environmental outcomes, on human health and pollution (GhaffarianHoseini et al. 2013).
Thus it must be noted that the traditional economy, that is, the economic institutions, activities related to production and delivery of goods and utilization of natural resources; must be considered a part of the larger or extended economy, which supports the entire system of life, that is, a type of economy that takes into consideration the interdependent relationship between the economy and the environment. Therefore, in the ‘60s it has been realised that there is an interdependent relationship between environment and economics, whereas the traditional economy acts as a circular and open subsystem, which is capable of working only with the support of its ecological foundation (Gössling, Scott and Hall 2013). In the last twenty years, it is Daly who has undertaken these aspects, which was previously researched by Boulding in his famous essay, “The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth”. According to this essay, Spaceship is definitely a circular system and one needs to direct and focus their efforts towards waste reduction, maintenance of non-renewable resources, recycling of materials and in the exploitation of renewable sources of energy such as solar energy (Grant 2016). According to the ‘material balance model’ of, the economic system is circular and open which is marked by a set of extraction methods of energy and matter from the environment and then comes the basic steps of processing, production and consumption. Each of these procedures leaves at the end some residues that is no longer useful in the environment (Grote, Williams and Preston 2014). The ‘first and second law of thermodynamics’ highlight the environmental restrictions that the economic system must take into considerations while supervising such accounting (Hall, Scott and Gössling 2013). As per the Cost-Benefit Analysis model, a project or policy measure should be such that there is a positive outcome of the calculated sum of non-environmental cost, non-environmental benefits and the actual value of environmental change (Higham et al. 2016).
The close relationship between economic growth, population growth, utilisation of resources and the ability to assimilate, has led many economists to debate that the only sustainable path to development is marked by economic development and population. This in turn has increased the need for the creation of a “steady state” in order to deal with a situation where there is an absolute scarcity of resources. Daly suggest that “development without growth” is the only possible way for development that takes into consideration the biophysical limits that nature imposes on the activities of the mankind. From this perspective, Daly proposes that steady state economy can be achieved through (Nair and Paulose 2014);
According to studies conducted on the future global economy, it has been found that though resources have increased multiple times the aggressive nature of growth would ultimately lead to the decline in the stock of resources within a short period according to annual growth rate of consumption. This in turn would lead to the collapse of the entire modern society, if no significant changes were made in the relationship between social, physical and economic aspects that had traditionally supervised the world development. It is further suggested that decrease in the quantity of resource would lead to the increase in price and this would result in the gradual abandonment of its utilisation, especially in those production where low-cost substitutes are available. At the same time, lack of resources also leads to the development of technological researches in order to find innovative technological solution for achieving the same production targets by applying different procedures. Both these effects of increase in price and finding a different solution, has the capacity to reduce the magnitude of the initial problem. Scholars who criticises the marginalist approach suggest that economic system should take into consideration the laws of nature by displaying actual irreversibility of materials and energy implications of production procedures. They further suggest that since environment is finite set the flow of materials and energy from that the economic system extracts from the environment must ultimately return completely to the environment in the form of useless residues, which is again generated by economic system (Peeters et al. 2016). On the other hand, the continuous deposition of wastes reaches a limit, when further destruction of it are not possible thus leading to alteration, pollution, deterioration and destruction of environmental resources causing “physical pollution”. These environmental damage results in the creating negative effects on the third parties, which the economists define as “economic pollution” that is, the losses made to the welfare is not compensated (Popp et al. 2014). The above arguments clearly presents the fact that the economy is a part of the environment and the eco-system poses the natural limits on economic processes or initiatives, which can also be termed as limitations or restrictions imposed by the ‘laws of thermodynamics’.
Environmental Policy of SIA:
SIA is dedicated to transporting freight and flying passengers across the world. They take into consideration long term aspects in the process of sustainable development of their air transportation and other related businesses. This also includes fulfilling other wider responsibilities such as preserving the environment during their process of operation and serving the worldwide community.
Sustainability initiative adopted by SIA
Change in climatic condition is a challenge for all industries, where aviation industry contributes up to 2% of global CO2 emissions. They also contribute to 3% of the global climate change impact (Welch and Warde 2015). However, over the last forty years many improvements have been made in the aviation industry in relation to preservation and protection of the natural environment. SIA aims to improve their fuel efficiency by the year 2020 further by 25%. They are also launching new aircrafts with improved technologies that will last longer. They are developing more fuel-efficient aircrafts. B747-400 is one such aircraft that is extremely fuel-efficient (Welch and Warde 2015). SIA also acknowledges the fact that every industry should strive to reduce the increasing carbon footprint. They are dedicated towards a comprehensive decrease in emissions.
SIA needs governmental support and cooperation from other sectors of the aviation industry in order to achieve their goal of ‘zero carbon emissions’ in the future. Carbon neutral growth allows them to increase their air transportation along with considerable decrease in their emissions. The five pillar strategy of SIA are (Zentner 2016) –
Technology – engine, airframe, aircraft variants, new energy sources and cleaner bio-fuels
Aircraft Operations – develop maximum efficiency and minimum weight
Infrastructure – improves airport terminal, air routes and airport procedures
Economic Instruments – allocation of finances to provide for technological research and development
Benefits for adopting the initiative
In addition to this, SIA is also making use of eco-friendly materials such as plastic sheets made from recycled resin are also taking initiatives in reducing paper wastage through IATA’s eFreight Programme. Moreover, Wildlife Reserves Singapore and SIA Cargo are jointly promoting conservation of wildlife under a three-year partnership agreement. They also take initiatives for the betterment of the community and facilitate community outreach programmes (Welch and Warde 2015).
Sustainability initiative regarding the forecast to develop in the future
However, despite the initiatives taken up by SIA for the protection of the environment, there are certain areas that need to be taken more into considerations. One such aspect is the increase in noise pollution caused by air transports. Noise pollution disturbs health; mental peace decreases human concentration power and damages the wildlife. Aircraft noise is a serious concern, however aviation industry has often asserted the fact that their so-called ‘noise footprint’ is reducing rapidly. Local residents have disputed this fact and every aspect of aircraft noise pollution is considered a subject of disagreement. Noise is measured on the Decibel ‘A’ scale, which is generally expressed as dB(A). This scale is used by environmental and public health officials in order to set limits and make suggestions about limits that should not be exceeded. For example, 55 dB(A) is considered as the limit that should not be exceeded in order to protect undisturbed sleep (Zentner 2016). Reports from surveys conducted suggest that airports including SIA needs to implement proper noise measurement techniques in order to determine the actual level of noise pollution around the airport and in the flight paths; so that effective steps can be taken to solve the problem of noise pollution.
Noise Pollution:
Noise pollution is an important form of pollution that has often been overlooked by both health and environmental officials. It not only creates mental disturbances but also has adverse effects on human health and wildlife. The World Health Organisations (WHO) has created a list of adverse effects caused by noise pollution. Some of them are, sleep disturbance, interference with communication, hearing impairment, stress, cardiovascular effects, task performance and productivity and others. Government of each country must take necessary initiatives to curb noise pollution and allocate the funds required in order to implement those measures.
Conclusion:
Aviation industry with each passing year is growing and developing their technologies to minimise environmental pollution. They have undertaken sustainable development in order to reduce emissions, increase fuel efficiency and protect the wildlife. SIA has also taken initiatives to support charity programmes for the benefit of the community. However, they need to focus more on the aspect of noise pollution and must take appropriate steps in order to measure the level of noise pollution and provide solutions for solving the problem. Technological innovations have helped in conserving natural resources and maintain the natural equilibrium of the environment.
References:
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