Virgin America’s Earth Day Efforts
- By Helen Craig -
- May 03, 2012
For a fifth year in a row, Virgin America has supported the California State Parks Foundation (CSPF) to support vital environmental restoration and clean-up projects across the state. On Earth Day this year, Virgin America teammates, including the President and CEO of Virgin America David Cush (see picture below), pitched in at San Francisco’s Candlestick Point State Recreation Area where they planted native trees, installed new redwood garden boxes and landscaping to help restore and preserve the park.
“As the only airline headquartered here in California, sustainability is important to our community, teammates and guests. We’re pleased to continue our partnership with the CSPF for the fifth year in a row, in order to support their efforts to protect and restore our state's natural resources — especially those in underserved communities like Candlestick Point,” said David Cush.
Virgin America teammates’ efforts at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area will help restore and improve the park’s community garden and shoreline. Candlestick Point State Recreation Area is the state’s first “urban” park and includes a community garden, open wildlife areas and other public spaces that support a better way of life in the underserved Bay Area neighbourhood.
Virgin America teammates in other cities across the country also participated in local environmental clean-up events throughout Earth month; with clean-up and restoration projects at the Dockweiler State Beach in Los Angeles, Mission Beach Park in San Diego, Angle Lake Park in Seattle, Busse Woods Park in Chicago, Grapevine Park in Dallas Forth-Worth, Rockaway Beach in New York, Charles River in Boston as well as other clean-up efforts in Fairfax, Las Vegas, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale. Volunteers include members of Virgin America’s Green Teams – teammate-led groups that focus on finding new ways to reduce the Company’s footprint – from better recycling efforts to green procurement.
But it isn’t just a once a year commitment to this project. Virgin America were the first domestic airline to offer guests the ability to offset their carbon in-flight by using the Red™ seatback touch-screen entertainment system to make a donation to CSPF or to offset the carbon emissions of their flight via the non-profit Carbonfund.org.
“We are proud to continue our partnership with Virgin America – an airline that has long supported environmental work and our efforts on behalf of state parks,” said Elizabeth Goldstein, President of California State Parks Foundation. “Not only are Virgin teammates helping us on the ground by volunteering in state parks, Virgin also helps us from 35,000 feet by providing an in-flight donation option on its entertainment platform. The innovative contributions of time and financial resources from Virgin and its generous flyers really help us in our mission to restore and preserve California’s natural treasures.”
To see all the photos from the day visit the Virgin America Facebook Album.
Related articles:
What would you put in the Big Red Box – David Cush is in our Big Red Box film!
Virgin America leaps into the future
Virgin America CEO on carbon limits for aviation
Virgin America named most eco-friendly airline
Follow Virgin America at:
Website: www.virginamerica.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/VirginAmerica
Twitter: @VirginAmerica
By Helen Craig. Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability at Virgin. Tweets @helcraig
