Unripe Australian-grown Cavendish and Lady Finger bananas were stored at 15, 20 and 25◦C in an atmo-sphere containing 0.001, 0.01, 0.1 and 1.0 L/L ethylene in air and the green life was determined as thetime to reach the respiratory climacteric. As expected, green life increased as the temperature and ethyl-ene concentration decreased. The equation describing the relationship between temperature, ethyleneconcentration and green life of Cavendish bananas was applied to a five-day 3000 km road transport routefrom the major tropical production area to the major urban markets. It predicted that bananas transportedin the prevailing mean summer temperature of 25◦C would not require refrigeration if the ethylene leveldid not exceed 0.58 L/L while transport at the mean winter temperature of 14◦C fruit could withstand alevel of about 0.90 L/L without ripening en route. The equation was also applied to a shipment protocolof 19 days for bananas exported from Central America to southern Europe. This predicted that fruit couldbe transported without refrigeration if ethylene levels were maintained at 0.04 L/L during the wintertemperature of 17◦C and at 0.002 L/L at the summer transport temperature of 24◦C. Since a range oftechnologies are available to maintain such low ethylene levels or reduce the action of ethylene, thesefindings suggest that the current refrigerated transport of bananas could be minimised or eliminated.The use of higher temperatures in the supply chain would reduce energy consumption with resultantenvironmental and economic benefits.