Marketplace - Responsible procurement

Onboard products

Carrier bags

Next time you shop onboard our aircraft just think - do you really need a carrier bag for your duty free? Well, if you do don't worry we've now made our bags better for the environment since they're now made of recycled plastic.

Pyjamas

For our first class passengers, bamboo is one of the key ingredients to a good night's sleep. That's because our pyjamas are made from sustainable bamboo, processed into a material softer than cotton. What's more it takes less energy to produce the bamboo 'cotton' and at the end of their life the pyjamas biodegrade much quicker.

Rainforest Alliance coffee

We now serve 100% Rainforest Alliance Certified™ coffee onboard all of our flights in all our cabins.

The Rainforest Alliance is an international environmental organisation. Their mission is to protect ecosystems, wildlife and people who depend on them. Farms that are Rainforest Alliance Certified™ have made improvements in the way the farm is managed including reducing pesticide use, improving worker safety, ensuring workers have decent housing and access to clean water, education and medical care for themselves and their families. Wildlife and water, forests and soils must also be protected.

Find out more about the Rainforest Alliance

Our furniture

Our worldwide furniture management contract with Amaryllis promotes waste minimisation, including the reuse and recycling of office furniture.

At Terminal 5 we adhered to a strict materials strategy to reduce the use of environmentally sensitive materials. In our lounges all our furnishings are manufactured using timber from sustainable sources. The carpets are PVC-free and completely recyclable. At the end of their life they will be recycled into more backing and more nylon for new carpet. The shower pavilions are decorated with a material that looks like timber but is in fact made from recycled milk bottles.

Our work with Amaryllis won the 2008 Pfm Award for Partners in Sustainability for the reuse and recycling of our office and lounge furniture. We were nominated primarily for the reuse of the Lounge and Office furniture removed from Heathrow Terminals 1 and 4 and other newly upgraded lounges.

When we were interviewed, the judges were particularly impressed not only by our reuse, recycling and disposal of old lounge furniture, but also that we aim to ensure any new furniture we purchase is made from environmentally friendly materials and wood from sustainable sources.

Elemis Travel Spas

We have teamed up with luxury British spa and skincare experts Elemis to offer spa therapies and in-flight skincare products to rejuvenate passengers on their journeys.

Our choice of Elemis compliments our concern for the environment and commitment to sourcing products and services responsibly through:

• Elemis using the finest ingredients from nature but never takes resources that are endangered or those that would adversely affect local communities
• rare or protected plants are not harvested from their native environment but grown in France and harvested under control
• plants are harvested once a year allowing small animals to live and thus participate in the biodiversity of the environment
• ISO 14001 certification ensures optimised waste handling and a 75% recycling rate

Learn about Elemis' environmental philosophy

Cleaner cars

Our UK sales force actively gets out and about to ensure we can meet the needs of our customers. The problem is they rely on cars. To ensure we minimise this impact we entered into a rigorous procurement process with several car manufacturers. The process looked at the lifetime carbon costs of a car. We eventually ordered 100 Honda Hybrid Civics which reduced our car fleet's carbon dioxide emissions by a third.

This followed an earlier investment of £25 million in new fleet and equipment for Terminal 5, including 38 new buses that meet the future Euro 5 standards.