Around the world as airlines strive to find ways to lessen the environmental impact of their operations, Hawaiian Airlines continues to add to an already extensive sustainability programme as part of the airline’s ongoing commitment to reduce its carbon footprint.

In Hawaiian language, the work Mālama means to take care of, tend, protect, save, and maintain. It’s a value intrinsic to Hawai’i’s culture and to Hawaiian Airlines, where caring for the company’s island home is a core value. One of the airline’s recent environmental endeavours making flying to Hawai’i even greener included Hawaiian becoming the first carrier to operate a demonstration flight between Auckland and Honolulu showcasing best practices in operational performance that greatly reduce fuel burn and carbon emissions.

Hawaiian’s Earth Day flight of eight hours and 54 minutes saved 3,260 pounds of fuel, reducing carbon emissions by five metric tons, after adhering to seven environmental markers outlined by the Asia and Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions (ASPIRE), a group of worldwide aviation leaders dedicated to advancing environmental stewardship in the industry.

The results equate to removing 154 cars from the road when annualized based on three weekly flights, according to EPA calculations (Hawaiian flies five times weekly between Honolulu and Auckland). Hawaiian also conducted an ASPIRE flight between Honolulu and Brisbane.

Hawaiian is also decreasing its reliance on jet fuel to power aircraft at the gate. The carrier’s initiative to connect parked aircraft to more efficient external electricity is significantly reducing pilots’ use of the on-board auxiliary power unit, or APU, which burns jet fuel to keep lights, avionics systems, air conditioning and other equipment on.

This ongoing effort has the potential to reduce Hawaiian’s APU usage by an estimated 30 minutes per flight, saving some 620,000 gallons of fuel annually and cutting CO2 emissions by 5,933 metric tons. That’s roughly enough fuel to fly the airline’s wide-body fleet for a day, while the carbon reductions equate to removing 1,253 cars off the streets each year.

By connecting aircraft at the gate to external electricity sources instead of reliance on jet fuel powered APUs (auxiliary power units), Hawaiian saves 620,000 gallons of jet fuel annually cutting C02 emissions by 5933 metric tons.

Travellers boarding a Hawaiian Airlines aircraft on flights to and from the Hawaiian Islands are also helping support an innovative research project to measure climate change and air quality worldwide. Hawaiian’s partnership with the In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System (IAGOS) is the first of its kind for a U.S. carrier and gives scientists real-time access to pollution levels in vast expanses of the Pacific where air quality samples have been difficult to collect.

Even Hawaiian’s use of an innovative, eco-friendly engine washing technology earned the company the first-ever aviation based carbon credits in 2012 for reducing its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by nearly 22,000 metric tons over a six-year period. Hawaiian’s reduction of CO2 emissions using Pratt & Whitney’s patented EcoPower engine washing system has had the equivalent effect of taking 700 cars off the road annually.

In 2016, Hawaiian Airlines Foundation, the Hawaiʻi Conservation Alliance Foundation and Conservation International created the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress Hawaiʻi Climate Fund. The $50,000 fund was created to honour Hawaiʻiʻs role as host of the IUCN World Conservation Congress in 2016 and provided grants to Hawaiʻi-based non-profit organizations battling the effects of climate change.

In 2015, Sydney harbour witnessed the incredible arrival of the Hōkūleʻa voyaging canoe during the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage, sponsored by Hawaiian Airlines. The voyage involved 200-plus crewmembers who sailed Hōkūle‘a and its sister canoe Hikianalia using Polynesian wayfinding navigation as they engaged communities with the goal of inspiring action to care for “Island” Earth.

Hawaiian Airlines provided more than 32 million air miles for crew and cargo throughout an expansive route network in addition to monetary contributions to the Polynesian Voyaging Society.

Whether in the air, the sea, on the ground, Hawaiian Airlines continues its Mālama commitment to sustainability.

Hawaiian Airlines is partnering with Raw Elements USA, a certified-natural, chemical-free, reef-safe sun care company

Most recently as the official airline partner of Raw Elements USA, a certified-natural, chemical-free, reef-safe sun care company, Hawaiian is airing an educational in-flight video, Reefs at Risk, to educate guests on the impact of sunscreen on Hawai‘i’s coral reefs.