Mike Cannon-Brookes, CEO of software giant Atlassian, has been found jet-setting under dubious circumstances, according to the Financial Review.
The billionaire has previously boasted about his sustainability efforts. Those include building the world’s tallest mass timber structure for the company’s headquarters and making big bets on solar power.
Recently, Cannon-Brookes was found flying to Azerbaijan on a private jet for an F1 event, where Atlassian sponsored a racing team. During this time, Atlassian closed its biggest corporate acquisition to date: $1 billion for developer productivity platform DX.
Atlassian made a name for itself with Jira, a platform originally designed for managing support calls and developer project management. It has since acquired task management app Trello and a handful of other related businesses. Atlassian also recently laid off 150 employees with the intention of replacing many of them with AI.
Luxury travel generates a disproportionate amount of atmospheric pollution. One study estimated that two of Jeff Bezos’ private jets emit more annually than the average Amazon employee could produce in 207 years.
Whether you’re a billionaire or otherwise, adopting low-impact travel options is the key to reducing atmospheric pollution and destructive weather patterns. Increasingly severe floods, droughts, and heat waves are creating massive agricultural, housing, and ecological costs.
Cannon-Brookes addressed the apparent hypocrisy of private jet travel versus values in sustainability back when he first bought the plane.
“I’m not denying I have a deep internal conflict on this,” he said on LinkedIn. “There’s a couple of reasons I’ve purchased a plane. Personal security is the primary reason (an unfortunate reality of my world), but also so I can run a global business from Australia, and still be a constantly present dad. So, this is a hard, continual trade-off I’ve decided to make.”
He went on to claim his flights were actually carbon negative because of sustainable aviation fuel and direct air capture. While sustainable aviation fuel is a promising way to mitigate travel emissions, direct air carbon capture isn’t as effective as it seems.
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