Industrial ecology paradox

In italic are the comments I added on December 30.

Ten years in a row Air France KLM is the most sustainable airline in the world, according to the
Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Moreover, KLM was the most sustainable company in the entire sector transportation for the last six years. This makes KLM one of the twenty-five most sustainable enterprises in the world.

This summer I flew to Beijing, with KLM coincidentally. This added 1.24 tonnes of CO2 to my carbon footprint. Which is, according to www.carbonfootprint.com, about the same as driving 10,000 kilometers in an average car. Which is about the distance from Amsterdam to Peru. What I am trying to say is that, in short, flying is one of the least sustainable actions we perform.

So as I read that KLM was one of the most sustainable companies in the world, all I really thought was 'wow, they must have a great Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) department'. To say the least, the news seemed paradoxical to me.

So what does my initial opinion tell me about this situation? I will not go into detail on the actual carbon footprint of a company like KLM, but I want to dig a little deeper into my own skepticism, as I feel it is shared by many others. Why am I surprised that an airline can be a leading sustainable company?

1. I'm fundamentally skeptical

I've studied ecology, so basically I have a deep understanding in how we are destroying the ecosystems around us. Add up a couple of years of watching the news and reading the papers and the simple consequence is distrust. I don't think I am the only industrial ecologist - to be - that struggles with the perception that the big companies are the 'bad guys' that drive climate change and obstruct the transition to environmentally friendly alternatives.

2. KLM is great at CSR

Maybe my skepticism is right. The Dow Jones Sustainability Index is meant as a benchmark for investors who want to take sustainability into account, therefor the largest companies in the world (2500 in the 'world-wide' category) are sent an extensive questionnaire. This questionnaire focuses on transparency and performance. 

KLM is of course investing in more sustainable alternatives to make their flights more efficient. But really the only thing this ranking says that KLM is doing better than other airlines, not that they are the greenest company in the world. KLM does just enough to be able to fully capitalize on the position as the most sustainable transportation company, but it is merely CSR.

3. KLM is a leader in sustainability

The Dow Jones Sustainability Index is created by RobecoSAM and assesses companies world-wide on their sustainability performance. They report there methodologies extensively. For the 'worldwide' category, the 2500 largest companies are invited to answer a questionnaire. For those companies who choose not to anwer, as much public information as available is inserted into the model. 

RobecoSAM has no interest in doing favours to any of the companies that are reviewed for their index, they solely want to create an accessible database that gives an overview of the most sustainable companies per sector.

As I wrote above, KLM is performing great over the last decade, according to the index. If a plane is more efficient, it needs less fuel, which makes the aircraft lighter, which makes the flight cheaper, which ultimately means more profit for KLM. And as in any company, I am sure that KLM's employees are to some extent worried about the environment.

By being ahead of its competition for a longer period of time, KLM proves that they are constantly seeking and implementing more sustainable ways within their field. It seems a little hypocritical to blame KLM for being unsustainable as long as we wish to use airplanes to transport ourselves and products we buy.

This blog has become slightly longer than I intended, as I got a bit carried away by the subject. I think that the only conclusion can be that the world is, as always, more complex. I think KLM is showing that sustainability is on their radar, at least they have managed to stay ahead of the competition for ten year. But indices never cover the full picture, so I do not feel that my skepticism was entirely wrong.

Comment 30-12-2014
This was the very first post I wrote for this course. I feel that if I had to write it now, it would be different in various ways, but the most important change that I would make is to make the content less personal. This post of course does not show a 'true' paradox, but rather a 'perceived' paradox. Even though perceived paradoxes can be of scientific interest as well, I am afraid that they are not if they are solely based on my own opinion.