A carbon footprint is defined by the emissions of greenhouse gases associated with any specific activity or transaction. The carbon footprint of aviation is primarily made of CO2 emissions. Due to the wide range of activities involved and the fuel required, commercial aviation has a carbon footprint accounting for at least 2% of global human-induced CO2 emissions. Due to the constraints of current aircraft technology, all commercial flying today has an unavoidable carbon footprint.

Carbon offsetting is a climate action that enables individuals and organizations to address the CO2 emissions they cannot avoid by supporting projects - like clean-energy producing wind farms or forestry projects - that verifiably reduce, capture, or avoid a proportional amount of CO2 emissions. Said another way, carbon offsetting enables travelers to balance the carbon emissions released as a result of their traveling.

Flight calculations are calculated as a result of fuel burn, passenger load, cargo load, and an adjustment to account for adverse climate impact beyond carbon dioxide (such as nitrous gas and formation of contrails). The calculations are performed at various precision levels:

• By-distance uses emission factors from the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). By-route is based on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) route average emissions.

• Calculations based on flight number is the most precise, applying specific fuel burn and passenger and cargo load factors for your flight (in line with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) methodology.

When travelers offset their carbon footprint, funds are applied to help support projects that reduce, capture, or avoid carbon emissions in an amount equivalent to that of their calculated carbon footprint. All of the funds are applied directly to the projects, with a small remaining portion used for standard administration and support services from SMBC Aviation Capital's climate partner CHOOOSE; this fee is just €X.XX per PAX, and this helps to cover CHOOOSE running costs.

Carbon offsetting is performed through the purchase and retirement of third-party verified carbon credits, which are units of emission reduction used in voluntary offsetting programs. The carbon credits made available to SMBC Aviation Capital are called Verified Emission Reduction (VER) units, certified by the Verified Carbon Standard. VCS is a voluntary program where projects are issued credits known as Verified Carbon Units or VCUs, each equivalent to 1 tonne of CO2e. Due to transaction minimums, travelers will typically offset more than their calculated footprint — but never less. The offset price that the traveler pays is the total cost to deliver the verified offset.

All projects that CHOOOSE™ make available to SMBC Aviation Capital and our associates are subject to ongoing and regular monitoring, reporting, and auditing to ensure that they remain in compliance with these standards and operational best practices.