Yesterday Southwest Airlines announced that it wanted to test some new environmentally friendly materials on a refurbished airplane that they are dubbing the “green plane.” The measures to create the environmentally friendly, recycled plane would cut the weight on an airplane and would save the company over $10 million in fuel costs if it changed all its planes to the more environmentally friendly materials.

Measures include making things such as life vest pouches and carpet more environmentally friendly. It actually shaves off about 472 pounds from each plane. With that much shaved off of the weight, each plane could save 9,500 gallons of fuel per year. Even if fuel was $2 a gallon, that would be $19,000 of savings per year. Considering that the company has 540 planes, that’s where the $10 million in savings comes from.

Over the next six months the new materials will be tested not only to see how well they can hold up against everyday wear and tear but also to see how Southwest’s customers like them. If they do, the environmentally friendly materials will be used throughout the entire fleet.

Airplanes do use a lot of fuel and anything that a company can do to maybe push a get a little more mileage out of the fuel that it already uses would be beneficial for not only the company’s bottom line but also for the environment. I would like to see what these environmentally conscious materials are and what they look and feel like. Sometimes people go “overboard” with environmentally conscious and make everything green or make it look recycled. It doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.