Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Going Green: From Customer Idea to Implementation

lmoffat
Adventurer A

We’re always looking for tips on how our Customers and Employees live and work Green, so our Green Team was delightfully surprised to receive an e-mail from a Customer who frequents our 737s twice a week.  Valued Rapid Rewards Member Jerome read our 2009 Southwest Airlines One Report™, and realized he had a pointer for us to add to next year’s report.

Every time Jerome printed his boarding pass, it would print two pages—the boarding pass on the first page and nothing on the second page.  Wait a minute—this sounds like a lot of ink and extra paper.  With Green at the forefront of Jerome’s mind, the blank page made its way into the recycling bin on the times when he forgot to tell his printer to only print the first page. 

Jerome even did the math for us, which really hits the point home. He flies twice a week, so that’s 104 pieces of paper a year going to waste.  Multiply this by the more than 100 million Customers we serve every year, and you get the idea.

Jerome—we heard you, and Green Team Member Terri shared this information with our Central Support Desk.  In turn, this Team tested the problem on several different browsers and confirmed that a second blank page was in fact being printed.  With the additional help of our Marketing Solutions and southwest.com Teams, the defect has now been corrected.

Our Customer Relations Team got wind of this and responded to Jerome not only thanking him for bringing the issue to our attention but for allowing us to improve one of our processes that impacts our Customers and the environment. 

We want to continue to contribute to preserving our natural resources and the environment, so let us know your ideas on living and working Green.  DING!  You are now free to be Green.

53 Comments
Scott_Huffman
Explorer C
There is only one possible answer for the second blank page. The employee for Southwest who was responsible for the implementation of this system obviously has a brother or brother-in-law who owns one of the large paper companies. I am not big on conspiracy theories but this is some kind of racket for sure!!
ECL
Explorer C
Two years later, the second page issue persists. I just printed a SWA boarding pass, and the second page was printed, with some useless data on it.
daffy1108
Explorer C

Hi,

 

I also like the 2nd page not printing.

However, my one page print is still using up too much ink.

Look how much yellow and black was used.

 

It's extremely wasteful !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hope your marketing and graphics team can use images with less blacks

and colors.

 

Thanks,

 

David

thumbnail.jpg