Why was a change needed?
Airlines today are inherently polluting. But they also bring value and joy into people’s lives, opening them up to different cultures and new experiences. And for those who work for airlines, it is difficult not to feel conflicted. However, unlike other industries, we simply do not have the technological alternatives that can be deployed today. This means mitigating the impact of our actions in the short term is something that needed addressing, as people continue to want to travel but are also increasingly focused on sustainability.
Thinking back to my own journey, I remember the launch day particularly clearly. I was fairly open-minded but yet to be convinced the programme would impact greatly on me or the organisation I worked for. I was aware of this nebulous concept of a ‘change challenge’ but it was only day one and I took the day as it came, concentrating on building some early relationships within my cohort.
Then in the final keynote of the day, Ed Gillespie pointed to wilful blindness in senior leadership in industries like tobacco and big oil. But it was clear that in Ed’s mind, given the climate crisis, you’re not too far away if you’re in an airline. He referred to a report by BA and I experienced a pretty visceral reaction. Who cares about a report? It’s about what you actually do.
I was conflicted. I felt both the need to act in defence of easyJet but I was also pretty sure that we were not living up to our values or being our most innovative selves and that we needed to face into this.
“It’s the environment, stupid!”
In that way, my change challenge came to me quite quickly that day. We should be stopping our carbon impact completely – easyJet should be carbon neutral. The ‘how?’ and the ‘what to do?’ were for another day but at least the challenge was clear.
‘Carbon neutral easyJet’. I loved the simple and absolute expression of it even if it seemed preposterous to achieve it.
How did you go about making a change?
At the first residential I was beginning to form thoughts. Experiencing other awakenings relating to social injustices in Manchester helped reinforce my focus and gave me motivation – I felt the need to act. Being around others from outside easyJet and the airline sector was a huge help, and having naturally inquisitive minds was extremely helpful in unlocking some of the ‘how’. I distinctly remember going out of my way to embrace further challenge from Ed, who had a hugely different perspective to my own but that actually helped broaden my thinking.
Taking all of my thinking back to the Hangar (our HQ) was interesting as you are suddenly surrounded by the day-to-day constraints again, but luckily easyJet lends itself to challenge and personal passion is encouraged. We’re centralised and not very hierarchical and that is something I love about us. Early on I talked to lots of people to kick the tyres and get a sense of who else might be enthusiastic. easyJet Fellows were a useful source of support and bravery!
One thing that strikes me now is the importance of how you garner support and the impact of doing the small things well and building really powerful relationships. I was thoughtful about when and where I approached people to maximise the chances of successfully influencing them. Sometimes, I would interact to sow a seed in people’s minds whereas at other times, I could be quite forceful in laying down a proposal.
Flic, the Forward Institute sponsor, had all the reasons to be supportive. She was responsible for sustainability. I worked hard to stay aligned to her on it but it was a journey with tensions to be worked through as she also had constraints within her role whereas I was acting freely outside my day-to-day role, so creating a compelling story became a priority.
Early on, we took a decision to employ some outside consultants to engage in producing a carbon strategy within the wider sustainability brief. Consultants work late and I would drop in and see them at the end of the day and chew the fat for hours. They weren’t subject matter experts and were learning and researching and it gave a great opportunity to be more unrestricted in our thinking.
‘Carbon neutral easyJet’. I loved the simple and absolute expression of it even if it seemed preposterous to achieve it.
I knew we could be challenging and testing in our thinking and so encouraged them to explore. The whole atmosphere was high energy and open to explore ideas that had not been employed in the industry before.
Looking back, it was a good move not to employ already established consultants in the field as the thinking was so much more unconstrained. They came back with interesting stuff and the devil’s advocate in me encouraged them to push it further.
Over the weeks we laid down bigger ideas about being carbon neutral. Once it becomes possible in theory, people started talking about linking in Government deadlines, which are inevitably very long term and often without specifics about how goals will be reached. This didn’t excite me but at least we were agreeing in principle.
Even at this point, I had been working quite informally on the project as it sat completely outside my ‘day to day’ responsibilities. I used my position to stay involved, stretching the remit of Procurement. I wasn’t officially on the steering committee but it become harder to not invite me given the relationships and interactions I was having. In the SteerCo discussions I pushed us especially on timelines: “2040? Is this as ambitious as we can be? Do we think as individuals that this is enough?” That took bravery but it was also liberating.
As carbon offset was a new space for easyJet, no one has all the answers so it became important to challenge but also allow people the time and space to absorb new information. Senior people don’t have all the answers and there is plenty of space to come in with ideas but it also takes a bit of nurturing!
One tension that always existed was the speed at which we could act. I felt that as soon as goals are not immediate and requiring actions now, they will always risk being watered down. If we’d said 20% carbon offset by 2028 I can see how it would have got watered down further. I did not want to second guess what others are thinking to make it more realistic or palatable.
Then the idea becomes less compelling. I always went back to my challenge: carbon neutral easyJet. It was absolute, and I loved the simplicity because it keeps you honest to the goal.
I had a few frustrating conversations along the way most linked to people putting constraints in the way, and it could be frustrating to see a compelling big idea reformed into a dry business case format concentrating on numbers and risks.
Luckily there were people I could ‘mouth off’ to and renew my energy. I have many people who I am lucky enough to call good friends within easyJet. They helped me work out how to navigate pushing for the big idea in an area that wasn’t my responsibility.
A couple more steering committees passed to explore ideas. What was the real opportunity in this? How brave could we be? Our CEO Johan is a passionate supporter of sustainability and I knew he was brave enough for the big idea. You have to remember that for CEOs there is a lot at stake when embarking on something that has not been done before and ultimately, they will be the face of this when it is launched. He never flinched once at the idea of being brave with this and was passionate about doing the right thing.
We were using the consultant’s stuff on the cost of offsetting and breaking down the natural barriers that exist to change. What sort of revenue premium would we need? How many extra passengers? Would they pay for it? Lots of open questions. We simply answered those factual questions and then challenged that our customers would see value in this. Then it began to get traction.
It was still being run out of steering committee and by this stage I’m part of it. Officially or not. I’m at all the meetings. I’m also having interesting conversations and agitating people who I know are there when the board conversations are being played out. “Come on, we can be brave!” My provocations seem to rub off on others and people are getting excited.
The talk in the SteerCo went quickly from a sentiment of “yeah something in here, over the next few years…” to “do something that proves it early on before we do anything big” to “well if we’re talking 2025, what would it take from 2022?”, and then to a point where others were beginning to ask the difficult questions. “What if we did it from the day we announce it?” Then we hear “go and see if you can make it happen by end-of-year results” – just a few weeks away!
All of a sudden the idea had critical mass and everyone got behind it. It became real and we had to find offsetting partners and do the really practical stuff. Immediately, everything needs to fall into place. We had to go from a standing start to being the world biggest user of carbon offsets in the voluntary offset market.
We had to contract it in weeks. The stress of that was immense as we knew the reputational risk of picking poor quality carbon offset projects – we were careful in our selection, only choosing the gold standard projects which made life more challenging but rightfully so. I remember thinking that doing the right thing could at times be a real pain in the arse even if I knew it was the only way forward. A big project that’s moving the dial on voluntary offsets (10% of the global market).
It’s big, reputational risk is high and our CEO has staked his reputation on this. A hugely stressful time.
And then we announced it to the world on 19 November 2019. The day we announced, was the same day that we had gone carbon neutral. It was both satisfying and a little anticlimactic. Given how much I had put into it, that was a little surprising but I simply wanted to spend some time with friends and family and enjoy the moment quietly. I remember Steve Redgrave reflecting something similar after winning a gold medal at the Olympics because you realise that life carries on afterwards so there will have to a new challenge as yet not discovered.