STOCKHOLM, United States — SAS Group airlines has begun offering customers the ability to offset the carbon-dioxide emissions from every flight they take.

"We are delighted to be able to offer our customers this possibility. It is part of the SAS Group's environmental strategy and is a suitable complement to the primary mechanisms in the Kyoto Protocol," says Mats Jansson, President and CEO of SAS.

Customers wishing to offset their impact on climate change can log on to the SAS website and be able to click through to a professional supplier with whom the compensation transaction will take place. Initially, customers will be able to offset carbon dioxide emissions by choosing to support various sustainable development projects, for example, renewable energy.

A common feature of all of these projects is that they have generated a documented reduction in carbon dioxide emissions that has also been verified by a third party. The second phase will allow customers to choose to purchase carbon offset suitable for compliance purposes (CDM/CERs or Kyoto Allowances, for example).

The price for compensating for flight emissions through projects varies according to point of origin/destination. A typical return flight between Scandinavia and Europe generates approximately 300 kilos of carbon dioxide and costs approximately EUR 4.50.

The SAS Group has chosen The CarbonNeutral Company as its partner, whose carbon management system is 'assured' by leading accounting firm KPMG, and who adopt a rigorous project selection and verification process. The CarbonNeutral Company has extensive experience from working with projects involving carbon dioxide reductions and sustainable development.

The option to voluntarily offset carbon dioxide emissions is a transitory solution until 2011 when aviation will be included in the EU Emission Trading Scheme, for which SAS has been a positive advocate.

SAS views voluntarily offsetting carbon dioxide emissions as part of its environmental work. This also includes the development of more environmentally adapted technology, the Group's own activities such as fuel-savings programs, Green Approaches, and work on creating infrastructure improvements through such activities as a common air-traffic control system in Europe.

SAS Group management has also decided that business travel in the Group shall offset carbon dioxide emissions by paying compensation.