Go Green, Give Green and Save Some Green at delta.com as Delta Commemorates Earth Day 2008

Delta to match customer contributions up to $10,000 to the airline’s carbon offset program created last year in partnership with The Conservation Fund

Delta.com to go green on Earth Day

ATLANTA.– To commemorate Earth Day 2008, Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) is once again encouraging its customers to go green by giving some green to the airline’s carbon offset program and committing to match customer contributions up to $10,000. Through Delta’s partnership with The Conservation Fund, a leading environmental nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting land and water resources, customers can contribute toward the offset of the carbon emissions associated with air travel at delta.com where customers also save some green by booking Delta’s lowest available fares.

To celebrate the program’s one year anniversary, Delta’s Force for Global Good is matching all customer donations up to $10,000 during the month of April to support the planting of an additional 1,800 trees. Beginning this month, Delta customers can also calculate the emissions from airline miles along with their personal carbon footprint online via the Go ZeroSM Carbon Calculator. In addition, on Earth Day 2008, April 22, Delta’s web site, delta.com will go green to continue to raise environmental awareness worldwide.

“Delta is proud to be the first U.S. carrier to offer a program that enables customers to help promote positive global environmental change in partnership with The Conservation Fund,” said Michael Quiello, Delta’s vice president of Corporate Safety, Compliance and Environmental Programs. “We know so many of our customers and employees worldwide are passionate about raising environmental awareness and Delta is committed to providing a platform for them to take action, as well as serving as a corporate leader through our wide variety of new and ongoing environmental programs.”

Customers who purchase a ticket at delta.com can choose to contribute $5.50 for domestic roundtrip flights and/or $11 for international roundtrip flights. Every penny of Delta’s customer’s donations goes directly to The Conservation Fund’s Go ZeroSM program to help plant trees and restore habitat for wildlife. For every $5.50 contributed, the Fund will plant one tree in a protected park or national wildlife refuge.

“Together with Delta and its customers, we can help to address two of the greatest environmental challenges of our time—climate change and habitat loss—by restoring native forestland,” said The Conservation Fund’s president, Larry Selzer. “Already the program has helped to plant 100,000 trees that are expected to trap 64,000 tons of carbon dioxide over the lifetime of the forest – that’s enough to offset the carbon footprint of 2,900 American’s for one year.”

In June 2007, Delta became the first U.S. airline to provide customers with the opportunity to help offset carbon emissions associated with air travel through a donation to The Conservation Fund. To kick off the initiative, Delta made a donation on behalf of every customer who flew a Delta mainline or Delta Shuttle flight on Earth Day, April 22, 2007 and planted a tree for each of the airline’s 47,000 employees. In October 2007 the employees’ trees were planted at Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge along the Texas Gulf Coast. This spring trees are being planted on behalf of Delta’s passengers at Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge in Kansas. The newly planted forests help absorb carbon dioxide, filter water, restore wildlife habitat and enhance public recreation areas.

Delta’s carbon offset program is one of the airline’s many efforts to effect positive environmental change. Other ongoing programs include:

* A comprehensive on-board recycling program that expands beyond traditional aluminum can recycling to include all aluminum, plastic and paper products. The program includes recycling newspapers, snack containers, soda cans, water bottles and plastic cups. Proceeds from Delta’s expanded recycling program continue to benefit Habitat for Humanity. Between June 2007 and February 2008, Delta has diverted more than 240 tons of recyclables from landfills across the country. The program has expanded to include a total of seven cities: Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle and Salt Lake City.
* Fuel conservation initiatives such as weight reduction, engine refurbishment, engine washes, the addition of blended winglets, reduced Auxiliary Power Unit usage, and the implementation of continuous descent approaches and new flight planning software have improved fuel efficiency (in revenue passenger miles per gallon) by 24 percent between 2002 and 2007.
* A 50 percent reduction in water consumption at the airline’s Technical Operations Center (TOC). The airline is currently installing a recycling system that will reduce TOC water consumption by 80 percent compared to 2004 usage. For its efforts to date, Delta received The Fox McCarthy Water Wise Award and recognition from the Georgia Association of Water Professionals.
* The incorporation of more than 600 zero-emission, electric vehicles and ground support equipment into the airline’s fleet. Significant reductions in emissions have been achieved by converting internal combustion engines to zero-emission electric units.
* The promotion of a next generation Air Traffic Control (ATC) system – both in Europe and in the U.S. – that affords more direct aircraft routing and subsequently results in the reduction of carbon emissions associated with air travel.


Delta’s partnership with The Conservation Fund is part of Delta’s Force for Global Good, a program that unites Delta employees and customers in philanthropic and social responsibility efforts throughout the world. The program leverages Delta’s global network of employees who volunteer, as well as assets of The Delta Foundation, Delta’s charitable organization supporting communities where Delta customers and employees live and work worldwide.

The Conservation Fund is the nation’s foremost environmental nonprofit dedicated to protecting America’s land and water legacy for current and future generations. Seeking innovative conservation solutions for the 21st century, the Fund works to integrate economic and environmental goals. Since its founding in 1985, the Fund has helped its partners safeguard wildlife habitat, working landscapes, community “greenspace” and historic sites totaling more than 6 million acres. With 1% fundraising costs and 97% program allocation, The Conservation Fund is recognized as the nation’s top-rated environmental nonprofit by both the American Institute of Philanthropy and Charity Navigator.

Since 2000, The Conservation Fund, though its Climate Change Program and Go Zero,SM, has restored 20,000 acres with six million trees that over their lifetime will trap an estimated eight million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from the atmosphere. For more information, visit http://www.conservationfund.org/ and http://www.gocarbonzero.org/.