Air Canada releases corporate sustainability report

Air Canada has released the 2015 edition of Citizens of the world, the airline’s fifth corporate sustainability report. 

The document details Air Canada’s performance during 2015 in four key areas of sustainability: safety, the environment, employee well-being, and the company’s community involvement.

“As the employer of 28,000 people in Canada and around the world, Air Canada acknowledges our responsibility to make a positive contribution at all levels of society through our sustainability initiatives. Whether we are reducing emissions by flying our aircraft differently, offering excellent employee benefits or supporting our communities by flying thousands of deserving children and meeting their needs, we do these things because we believe we must act responsibly and participate meaningfully as a leading Canadian company,” said Calin Rovinescu, president and chief executive of Air Canada.

“Transparency and accountability are the hallmarks of our operations and we believe it is critical that all our stakeholders assess how well we are delivering on our commitments. This is the aim of Citizens of the world, Air Canada’s 2015 corporate sustainability report. It is now our fifth report, evidence that sustainability activities and reporting is woven into the fabric our company.”

Air Canada’s 2015 corporate sustainability report is available at www.aircanada.com/csr.  It was prepared in accordance with principles of the Global Reporting Initiative, an internationally recognized standard for sustainability reporting. 

To further validate the report, Air Canada has taken the extra step of retaining a third-party auditor to assure select indicators and independently verify the company’s disclosure. The report is framed around the findings of an extensive stakeholder survey to identify areas of most concern with respect to sustainability. 

It also contains a discussion of governance practices at Air Canada and tables of data quantifying the results of the company’s sustainability activities. Highlights of 2015 include:

• Lost time injuries declined three per cent from the previous year, the fifth straight year of decline;

• Successful completion of the IATA Operational safety audit (IOSA);

• Its fuel efficiency initiatives are estimated to have saved almost 11,000 tonnes of fuel or approximately 35,000 tonnes of CO2e (equivalent);

• $ 12 million was contributed to company pension plans; and

• The Air Canada Foundation raised $1.6 million, a 10 per cent increase from 2014.