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Donate your Frequent Flyer Miles for Causes of Good

Posted on March 18, 2017 Updated on April 15, 2017

In earlier times of India, long-distance travel was usually associated with pilgrimages. Pilgrimages offered the possibility of distributing one’s wealth to those causes, people and places where distribution of wealth can be beneficial. People attempted to reduce the difficulties faced by pilgrims by planting trees on the sides of the road, constructing shelter-houses and resting platforms, providing free food, digging wells and ponds etc. While modernity may have enveloped lifestyle, this charitable outlook was maintained. Purchases made by travellers in train, especially in unreserved and sleeper class compartments, are an example. Now, airlines are also giving an option for travelers to contribute.

Airlines attempts to acknowledge and reward their repeat customers through ‘loyalty programmes’. Repeat travel with the same airline will result in the passenger accumulating points. Accumulated points, also referred to as ‘frequent flyer miles’, can be used by the passenger for additional benefits. Examples could be a shift to an upper class (“upgrade”), usage of airport lounges, additional baggage allowance, discounts at hotels and more.

With some of the airlines, the passengers can donate their flyer miles to noble causes. The miles donated are used for a number of causes such as flying patients for treatments around the world, humanitarian airlifts, free cargo spaces, bio-diversity conservation, health research etc. The below is the list of some of the airlines that provide the passenger an option for frequent flyer mile donation: Read the rest of this entry »

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged air france, airport lounge, alaska airlines, american airlines, Asia Miles, baggage allowance, cayman airways, Corporate social responsibility, csr in aviation industry, Delta Airlines, donate miles, EgyptAir, El Al, Emirates, Etihad, FFM, frequent flyer mile, Garuda Indonesia, hotel discounts, Iceland Air, Japan Airlines, KLM, loyalty programme, Miles and More, repeat customer, Royal Jordanian, Singapore Air, South African Airways, Star Alliance, TAP Portugal, United, upgrade.

Inflight Food – Gastronomic Delight?

Posted on March 18, 2017 Updated on April 15, 2017

Many airlines have been known for giving tasty food. The charm associated with air-travel has also been contributed by the photographs of inflight food. Airline chefs have contributed to the popularity of food presentation. However, is the food good as they appear? Well, some people would like to eat a tomato that is actually a tomato, and not something that looks like a tomato. A mango is a mango only if it is a mango. In my email interaction with 125+ airlines of the world, i was unable to find any airline that have (a) a food labeling practice that informs the passenger about the usage of any genetically modified ingredients in the inflight meal plans and (b) offer a fully organic meal. Read the rest of this entry »

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Air Greenland, Air Kerala, Air Vanuatu, airBaltic, airline menu, airlines providing healthy food, airlines providing organic food, airlines that serve non-GMO food, Brussels Airlines, business class menu, carbon emission, Delta Airlines, economy class cuisine, Etihad, food labeling for airline food, genetically modified ingredient, GMO in airline food, healthy inflight food, inflight meal plan, kadala, KLM, local food, nenthrappazham, organic food, puttu, SAS, seasonal food, vegetarian menu during air travel.

Offseting your carbon emissions from air travel

Posted on March 17, 2017 Updated on April 15, 2017

Have you ever been dumb-struck when people discuss about “priority boarding”, “J class”, “stop-overs” etc., and thought how rudimentary and menial your planetary existence is? Well, you also may benefit from this blog posting.

An airplane emits lots of carbon dioxide and related emissions. Using multiple carbon calculators available with various airlines, i found that air-travel between two airports in India – Delhi (DEL) and Kochi (COK) – results in carbon emissions between 0.186-0.552 tonnes for one passenger. In contrast, traveling by train between Delhi and Kochi can result in carbon emission of 0.02 tonnes per passenger. So, air travel causes 10-27 times (or 800-2500 percentage higher) carbon emission as compared to a train travel. Note that the average carbon emission of an Indian, as per World Bank estimates 2013, is 1.6 tonnes for a whole one year. Read the rest of this entry »

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Aeroflot, Air New Zealand, airlines that provide carbon offsetting options, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, carbon emissions during air travel, carbon footprint during air travel, carbon neutral airline, carbon offset for airline passengers, Cathay Pacific, Costarica, delhi, Delta Airlines, environmental footprint, J class, Japan Airlines, Jet Star, jetBlue, Kenya Airways, KLM, kochi, land use, Lufthansa, Nature Air, priority boarding, Qantas, SAS, South African Airways, stop-overs, Swiss Air, TAP Portugal, Thai Airways, tree saplings, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Samoa, world bank estimate of per capita carbon emission.

Socially Responsible, Environmentally Sensitive, and Health Conscious Bread Products in India

Posted on November 15, 2015 Updated on March 26, 2017

Many bread brands used to made with maida. Usage of maida is unhealthy. Breads are evolving. We now have multi-grain bread, atta bread and more. Breads contributed to the sandwiches that you purchased in a railway station, the snack that you prepared when you were the only person at home, and a quick way through which you opted to feed the hungry person on the street.

Ascertaining the best bread brand in India would be an incomplete process considering the varied number of bread brands that we have in India. The below assessment is thus limited and is indicative of some of the parameters that a citizen can consider while making purchases related to bread.

The below were the parameters that i was pondering upon to take into consideration, while i finally selected only some of them, due to reasons explained below:

Does the bread use whole grains rather than refined grains? It is healthier to consume whole grains rather than refined or polished grains. Breads made from whole grains will have higher fibre, protein and carbohydrates.

Does it use packaging more than what is necessary?

Does the bread uses multiple number of food grains? The higher the variety of food grains that are used, the better. It is good for our health, it is good for our ecosystem. Varied ingredients in breads may range from wheat, soya, oats, maize, channa etc.

What percentage of the ingredient is made from whole grains? The higher the percentage of ingredients that are made from whole grains, the better. Unfortunately, i was not able to find this information in the bread packets.

Does the product use any preservatives? Lack of preservatives may result in a lower shelf life for a product. However, non usage of preservatives is certainly a better practice. All brands that i selected uses preservatives. However, there may be breads made by certain individual outlets that do not use any preservatives.

Does the company/ parent company releases a sustainability report? For now, and for reasons that you may be knowing, i chose to give time, before generating confidence in allowing myself to be influenced by the sustainability reports issued by companies. India will create benchmarks in the emergence of corporate responsibility reports that will contribute towards the greater good of all.

Read the rest of this entry »

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Annadaana, Atta, Brown Bread, Channa Flour, gluten, Health, Healthy, INS 1100, INS 260, INS 282, INS 471, loaf, Maida, Maize Flour, modern, Multigrain bread, Oat Flour, oats bread, Oats Flour, ragi bread, Ragi Flour, Rice Flour, Sandwich Bread, Sesame Seeds, Soya Flour, wheat flour.

WebSearch Sites that practice Social Responsibility and Environmental Sustainability

Posted on May 14, 2015 Updated on June 27, 2019

This is an update of a posting that i made earlier, more than a year earlier, and that posting started with the following introduction.

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Which is your favorite search site? For most, the answer is…..

eMarketer.com, a market research company specializing on digital marketing, states that the projected advertisement spending in web-search segment, for years 2013, 2014 and 2015 will be $19.76 billion, $21.73 billion and $23.32 billion respectively. What if even a small percentage of revenues from this multi-billion dollar market goes to projects and causes that contributes to the well-being of all?

Thus came the idea of having exploring web-search sites that significantly contributes to the well-being of all! Read the rest of this entry »

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Ask, Ask.com, Bing, Burkino Faso, Carbon Neutral, Carbon Offsetting, Corporate social responsibility, EcoKey, Ecology, EcoSearch, Ecosia, Environment Friendly, environmental sustainability, EPA, EveryClick, GoodGames, GoodSearch, GoodShop, GoodSurvey, Google, Microsoft, renewable energy, Search Options, Social Responsibility, Treehoo, TreePeople, Web Search, Yahoo.

Uncategorized

Donate your Frequent Flyer Miles for Causes of Good

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Inflight Food – Gastronomic Delight?

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Offseting your carbon emissions from air travel

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Socially Responsible, Environmentally Sensitive, and Health Conscious Bread Products in India

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WebSearch Sites that practice Social Responsibility and Environmental Sustainability

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