Bjarke Ingels joins board of private jet company
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Source:
EMCJet
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Source: Greenpeace
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Source:
Time Magazine
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Source:
The Guardian
Wikimedia Commons
‘Hedonistic Sustainability’ champion takes on a new role: buying and selling jets.
Who are we talking about?
Danish architect and founder of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Bjarke Ingels.
Earlier this year he joined the board of private aircraft brokerage company, EMCJet1.
Mr Ingels’ architecture firm BIG has received multiple high profile commissions around the world with many being centered on his idea of ‘Hedonistic Sustainability’; the philosophy that climate action can improve quality of life.
What will his role be?
Any specificity on his role is unclear.
EMCJet or BIG did not respond to a request for comment on the specifics of Mr Ingels’ role at the firm. A press release by the company hints at involvement in the interior design of aircraft sold by the company and helping set a new standard for ‘eco friendly’ private aviation.
When did he join?
A press release by EMCJet was issued in early 2024.
Why is this important?
Private jets pollute considerably more than commercial aircraft with 10x more CO2 emissions per person per flight and are not a sustainable mode of transportation2.
Mr Ingels has long promoted sweeping schemes to tackle climate change, an ethos that is contradicted by a decision to sit on the board of a company within the unsustainable transport industry.
In an interview with Time Magazine in 2020, Mr Ingels laid out his proposal to save Earth: ‘Masterplanet”3. He focused on a redesign of the planet to ‘cut greenhouse emissions’ amongst other ideas. Despite the scale of his ideas and ambitions to combat climate change in the public eye, it is difficult to see how facilitating the sales of private jets helps this aim.
The current scale of private jet emissions and overuse was captured by the Guardian in 2023 which concluded that 200 celebrities and billionaires had a combined 11 years of total flight time since the start of 20224.
Multiple celebrities have been under the spotlight for excessive use of private jets including Taylor Swift and more recently, UK Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer. The investigation also found that Lawrence Stroll, owner of the Aston Martin Aramco F1 team, made the most journeys of 15 minutes or less in private aircraft and recorded over 1500 flights between January 2022 and September 2023. Aston Martin’s star driver and former world champion Fernando Alonso is a brand partner for EMCJet.
EMCJet has also entered into an agreement with Lillium Air Mobility to be the exclusive retailer in Texas for its upcoming Lillium jet. The Lillium will be the first all electric vertical take off and landing (eVTOL) jet, however, deliveries are not expected until summer 2026 and the agreement is understood to be until 2030. Until then, EMCJet continues to operate within the conventional private aviation industry.