Green Gets An Upgrade

Green Magazine Hawaii

Paradise Helicopters has launched a first-of-its-kind program in partnership with the Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative and Legacy Carbon that gives guests the opportunity to “green their seat” while experiencing Hawaii’s most incredible sights.

For nearly 20 years, Paradise Helicopters has provided a bird's-eye view of Hawai'i's natural wonders and access to its most remote landmarks. Now guests can have this experience for free just by sponsoring the planting of native Legacy Trees here in Hawai'i.

Guests can visit LegacyTrees. org to select from a wide range of tax-deductible tree-planting options within the Hawaiian Legacy Forest. Sponsorship options include endemic koa or sandalwood Legacy Trees that will be planted for permanent reforestation and managed by the non profit Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative (HLRI).

Paradise Helicopters will then provide a menu of helicopter tours based on the sponsor's tree-planting choice. For instance, sponsoring 16 koa Legacy Trees will earn the donor a free75-minute Oahu Circle Island Tour.

"Paradise Helicopters guests can now play an active role in reforesting Hawai'i's native trees and re-establishing critical habitat for endangered wildlife, even if they don't have the opportunity to plant trees in person," says Calvin Dorn, CEO of Paradise Helicopters. "This new program is a seamless extension of our long standing commitment to environmentallyresponsible operations and community stewardship, which is part of our Paradise Hoomaluo program."

To offset the environmental impact of their flight, guests can also choose to purchase Legacy Tree carbon credits on most Paradise flights across Hawai'i, which span Hawai'i Island, O'ahu, Maui and Lana'i. Credits are $6 per seat on tours less than 90 minutes and $8 per seat on tours longer than 90 minutes.Carbon offsets are standard on select flights, including the Volcano-EcoLanding Tour on Hawai'i Island, which offers service to the Hawaiian Legacy Forest in addition to other extraordinary charter experiences.

Paradise is the first and only air tour company in the state to offer carbon-neutral flights, with all carbon- offset fees used to plant endemic trees here in Hawai'i.

Legacy Carbon is the only certified carbon-credit program of any kind in Hawai'i, with credits certified by the Gold Standard Foundation in Switzerland. Legacy Carbon uses a proprietary radio-frequency identification (RFID) geo-tagging technology that accurately verifies ongoing growth,maintenance, genealogy and carbon-sequestration data of each tree.This technology has helped create the most intricately mapped forest in the world.

"More than 350,000 native trees and understory species have been planted in the Legacy Forest to date, thanks to the support of tens of thousands of individual sponsors, organizations and partnerships with forward-thinking companies like Paradise Helicopters," says Jeff Dunster, executive director of HLRI.

Founded in 1997, Paradise is widely recognized for its industry- leading safety practices exclusive tours. It also operates flights for invasive-species identification and eradication, watershed rehabilitation, fire fighting and tree planting. To book your free helicopter tour for sponsoring Legacy Trees, visit HawaiianLegacyTours.com. For more on carbon-neutral flights, visit ParadiseCopters.com.