CO₂ Emissions Calculator:

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jumps

The Data

The graph above depicts your skydiving emissions^{2, 3, 4} in relation to driving for 30.000km⁵, a transatlantic return flight^{6a, 6b, 6c} and footprint reduction by dietary choices^{7, 8, 9}

Please note that data for the graphs is based on emissions from a highly efficiently operated Supervan with short taxis and fast loading. If your home dropzone uses a different aircraft, those figures are considerably higher. Have a look at the comparison chart here to see emissions for your aircraft. For reference, the following graph compares the Supervan (lowest emissions) to the Skyvan (highest emissions):

Next up: What about all that time flying in the windtunnel^{10, 11, 12}?

Let's also have a look at how we compare to the average EU citizen¹³:

As a quick resume, here are the graphs above in numbers:

• Driving your car for 30.000km equals 398 skydives
• One transatlantic flight (AMS-ORD) equals 288 skydives
• Going vegan for a year compensates 176 skydives
• Going vegetarian for a year compensates 138 skydives
• A skydiver with 250 jumps and 5h of tunnel yearly emits 45.7% more CO₂ than the average European citizen
• If you're a vegan skydiver with 250 jumps and 5h of tunnel a year you still emit 21.2% more CO₂ than the average European citizen

Skydiving is a very entertaining but also highly polluting activity. It is important to be aware of the impact our sport has on the environment. Also, to be able to have an informed discussion, it is generally more favorable to talk about facts and figures instead of using words such as less and more. Of course this data may vary greatly depending on the source. For the calculations above, real world fuel burn data was gathered from Skydive Flanders. Only official or peer-reviewed publications were used for statistical data about CO₂ emissions in different sectors. However, if something still seems off to you, please get in touch so we can figure out together whether some data on this website needs to be adjusted.

What Can I Do?

Let's face it, the most efficient way to reduce your skydiving footprint would be to skydive less. 100 jumps from a Supervan equal 893kg of CO₂ emissions⁴. Maybe don't go for every possible funjump and spend some of your good weather days going for a swim or a hike instead.

Subsequently, it matters which aircraft you are flying with. Skydiving from a single engine aircraft can reduce your emissions by more than 50% in comparison to a double engine aircraft. Flying back and forth between continents for your skydiving activity increases your footprint considerably. If you don't want to quit skydiving just yet and none of the following options are enticing to you, but you want to reduce your footprint, you could still choose to only go to events happening close to you, at dropzones operating single engine airplanes.

Furthermore, there is the option of offsetting the carbon emissions of your jumps. The price to offset emissions for 100 jumps is 5€¹⁴. Bear in mind that tracking the actual effect of offsetting is a complicated matter and that offsetting might not be the ethical choice¹⁵.

Lastly, ask yourself if every single roadtrip is really worth it. Your car is likely one of the major contributors to your overall carbon footprint. Switch to public transport or start cycling instead. This might also be beneficial to your health¹⁶.

As an event organiser you could also choose a local dropzone for your event. This might not entail the same weather guarantee, but would heavily reduce your participants' travel emissions. Additionally, you could include a nature day during your event. This would be a good weather day on which the entire camp doesn't jump and pursues an alternate activity.

As a dropzone (and most likely you are doing this already) you could try to operate your plane as efficiently as possible: short taxi, fast loading and no long holds for that one skydiver who still needs to finish up packing. You might also want to consider to switch to a single engine aircraft as this will not only cut your CO₂ emissions considerably, but might also reduce your operating costs and generate a higher profit margin.

Get In Touch

In case of questions, criticism or suggestions please get in touch here.