TUI UK managing director Peter Rothwell believes it is time to take action on the environment and accepts this will mean making sacrifices.
Rothwell spoke to Travel Weekly this week at a Green Day at Thomson’s head office in Luton where staff heard about how they and the company can become more green.
He said: “It has been an eye-opener. I didn’t know leaving a TV on standby can use 85% of full power. There is a tendency for everyone to blame everyone else.”
However, Rothwell expressed frustration that flying is seen as such a major contributor to climate change.
“People find it easy to say the big corporations are guilty,” he said. “But the alternatives to flying are not working. Motorways are jammed with polluting vehicles.
“Aviation has led to more people travelling, but it has also brought significant benefits.”
Rothwell said calls from pressure groups to curtail flying would make very little difference to global climate change.
“It’s impractical to ask emerging economies to cut carbon emissions when they are dealing with huge poverty. In the developed world, we probably have to make sacrifices.
“If we stopped all flying it would cut emissions by 4% or 5%, but would have a huge impact on the economy and society. We need a balanced approach.”
Rothwell said he would look at instructing staff to turn off PCs at night and weekends to cut power use. Staff are already recycling rubbish and reducing the amount of paper they use for printing.
“We could save £100,000 a year just on printing,” said Rothwell. “We have to work and produce a result, but we’re trying to be responsible.”
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