Should the airline sector be looking at sustainability from a holistic perspective?

The airline industry has been discussing sustainability efforts in relation to emissions for many years. Earlier this year Google updated its Travel Impact Model, which launched in 2022 to determine flight emissions. Last year, American Express Global Business Travel partnered with Chooose to integrate carbon emissions calculations as part of its reporting and booking tools last year. Chooose had just received a $15 million investment to expand when they partnered with American Express Global Business Travel.

Travalyst will release its aviation sustainability framework in 2022 for the collection and display of flight emissions data. All of this comes in the years that follow the International Air Transport Association 2021 pledge to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 as support for the Paris Agreement. Should the aviation industry look at sustainability efforts from a more holistic perspective, in order to provide a meaningful measure of progress towards net-zero. Some industry voices believe so.

The ranking’s introduction states that “there is significant uncertainty in public debate regarding whether airlines are investing in the innovation needed for a future of net-zero aviation.” The new analysis, which is meant to be a fuller look at sustainability efforts, may be useful given that air travel is generally said to account for less than 3% of CO2 emissions globally – though that statistic could rise according to recent analysis from the same duo.

What makes this analysis unique?

While it has become common to use emissions as a measure of sustainability progress, the Net Zero Airline Ranking goes even further.

“The reason we brought everything together was to give more clarity on what sustainability means in an airline context,”

said Lukas Kästner, co-founder, chief operations officer and co-founder of Sustainable Aero Lab. The platform aims to make climate neutral aviation a reality. The report examines how the 20 largest airlines (based upon total revenue) are committed to achieving net-zero emissions.

Lennart Dobravsky from Research + Attitude, a company that helped develop the study with Sustainable Aero Lab in a LinkedIn share, explained the study which was published last Thursday. This analysis is unique, because it goes beyond the usual metrics such as CO2 emission per passenger-kilometer when assessing the airline sector’s sustainability progress.

Kaestner said:

“There are no rankings or go-to points at the moment until we publish.”

This is where you could collect it for the largest airline companies in the world. This is why we said that it was important to have a level of transparency to guide the discussion and to allow questions and discussions around this topic. What are the correct parameters? Do we need to further develop them?”

Kaestner says that awareness of the issue is lacking. He said that rather than a broader picture of sustainability, there has been a focus on the press releases and a story presented by airlines. It’s hard to put sustainability efforts and statements in perspective.

Research + Attitude & Sustainable Aero Labs decided to change this. The duo also wants to highlight how far the industry has to go in order to achieve its goals.

The Q2 2024 ranking will be based on five metrics that evaluate the commitment of each airline. It is meant to give priority to “real action” over “superficial commitments.” Each metric should be relevant to the industry’s drive towards a sustainable future.

What does the report reveal about the situation?

The report found that the 20 largest airlines in the industry are not doing enough to achieve net-zero. The report examined fleet age and sustainable aviation fuel share. It also looked at SAF offtakes as well as climate fund and green investment.

Dobravsky said:

“We have not seen any major airline commit to all five dimensions of our plan.”

The airlines haven’t invested sufficiently in sustainable aviation fuel. The airlines have not signed agreements for sustainable fuel offtake to ensure future supply. Airlines haven’t invested enough money in sustainable aviation startups. Airlines have not contributed enough to climate funds.

The report determined a “full scale net zero commitment strategy” score for each airline. Overall, it was found that there is a lack in comprehensive strategies. “No airline” has a strong commitment to all metrics. The study also found that although airlines have publicly praised their net-zero sustainability initiatives, there is a gap between rhetoric and reality. It’s mostly about marketing. The climate is not the only thing at stake. The “social licence” of the air industry to function in future decades is also under threat.

Dobravsky, despite the negative results of the airline group, noted a few standouts.

“We want to also praise those airlines who have made more commitments,” he said. He pointed to United Airlines in France and KLM Air – both of which had a different approach than their peers.

Dobravsky cautioned that it was not wise to make any judgements based on a nascent investigation.

“We want to start a discussion on how we can best measure this moving forward,” he said. “Because of course, our approach is not without its caveats or flaws, correct? We want to publish it to hopefully convince others in the aviation industry, especially established stakeholders. The team plans to add additional net-zero commitment analyses in the future.

Can the industry progress on sustainability?

The results show a need for more comprehensive strategies in the industry, according to the report — and an obligation to “move beyond superficial PR commitments” to make investments in impactful changes.

“It’s factual” [that] The industry has no path [to] Zero, right. At least, based on the existing technologies,” Dobrovsky said.

Fundamentally, he said, the industry is at a point where it needs to solve a technology challenge — that can be solved if investments into radical efficiency are made. “The index we created is definitely biased towards radical innovations, such as money put aside in climate funds or money invested into startups.”

It is important to encourage airlines to invest in this technology.

While that all may sound daunting, the report showed that airlines can improve their positions with “relatively small efforts” — modest investments in sustainability, for example, could lead to marked improvements when compared with peer airlines.

Kaestner and Dobrovsky think that sustainability can be improved in the next five to ten years.

Kaestner replied, “I believe we can.” “It is not a question of technology to me.” It’s all about willingness. If we are willing to take a step forward, we will be able manage. The question then is: “Will we achieve the will?”

Dobrovsky said that the industry needs to be more open about its sustainability, where it is and where it wants go.

“Our hope … is that the industry starts committing to accepting where we stand in the net-zero challenge, and once we are willing to provide the numbers, we are then able to call out the problem transparently and clearly, which is, I think, the basic need in order to then commit to investments and real action over words.”