Carbon footprint
Cut your carbon emissions today
Sustainability has taken on a new meaning for business aviation. Now a flight department’s sustainability credentials are assessed not solely on costs but partly on its environmental record. Words by Yves Le Marquand.
Carbon footprint
Cut your carbon emissions today
Sustainability has taken on a new meaning for business aviation. Now a flight department’s sustainability credentials are assessed not solely on costs but partly on its environmental record. Words by Yves Le Marquand.
OEMS, OPERATORS, AIRPORTS and caterers: every link in the flight supply chain is taking action to operate more sustainably. These organisations are cutting carbon emissions and being friendlier to the planet in everything from cabin design materials, food wrapping and cutlery to fuel, airframe design and ground vehicles.
So, as the pace of climate change intensifies, we know why we need to operate more sustainably. The question is how can we do that today?
“Just start, sustainability is a journey and every action counts,” Nancy Bsales, chief operating officer, 4AIR tells Corporate Jet Investor (CJI). “By just starting we are moving in the right direction.” Offsetting is really the only option available today to make aviation carbon neutral. With limited supply of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and blended SAF being about 23-27% better than conventional jet fuel, “we still need offsets to help us achieve carbon neutrality”, says Bsales.
Offsets are not the long-term solution but are a starting point to help fliers get involved with sustainability and take action now. “We often see them as the first step taken for a company’s programme, as they evaluate their ability to get involved in longer term solutions. As a society we need to decarbonise not only aviation, so offsets help us impact outside of our sector and advance a global decarbonisation goal.”
It is critical to the integrity of offsetting that programmes are verified and validated. Unverified offsetting can be the same as flying without a programme. Each carbon offset standard issues protocols, or methodologies, that define how projects are designed and operated. Each protocol has criteria to ensure that every carbon offset generated is additional, real, measurable, verifiable, and permanent.
Every metric ton reduced is audited annually to ensure that it meets these criteria, aligns with its methodology, and is issued a serial number. At that point it is issued to a public registry and can be tracked, traced, and retired on behalf of the user. “Buying verified carbon offsets ensures that the most robust audit, verification, and documentation exists for a particular reduction,” adds Bsales.
What about SAF? Although production is still small, growth and supply are on the horizon with potentially exponential growth over the next two decades. “Purchasing SAF today provides a demand signal from business aviation that encourages the future production of SAF. We are already seeing over two dozen FBOs carry SAF and more and more will do so as long as we continue to show that demand for the fuel,” says Bsales.
Using book-and-claim solutions are a way of taking advantage of SAF’s benefits today whilst volume is small. It mobilises funds, supports that demand signal and allows SAF to maximise its cost efficiency and sustainability by minimising transportation. Book-and-claim has been in practice in other renewable markets for more than 20 years. Bsales says: “It will also help increase supply at a quicker rate for the business aviation community. The key to book and claim systems is a robust documentation trail that accurately includes all necessary sustainability information.”
4AIR encourages the idea of “whole aircraft sustainability”, although fuel has the largest environmental impact, emissions and other effects are created on the ground, in the FBO and inside the aircraft. “It is important to look at not only the emissions but also the impact of water usage and waste generation. This often comes from catering and materials onboard the aircraft or in the interior. True sustainability means looking at the aircraft and our journey holistically,” says Bsales.
Examples include using and iPad or QR code in place of newspapers, a vegan burger in place of a hamburger, a single-use plastic water bottle replaced with aluminium water bottle, plastic plates swapped for reusable china and locally-sourced food choices.
Water Footprint Network estimates that a quarter pound of beef requires 460 gallons of water to get to your plate and creates 9.73kg carbon dioxide (CO2). By comparison, a gallon of Jet A emits a little over 9.6kg CO2. “Offer menu items that reduce impact, consider no single use plastics and recycling practices as well as a robust donation programme,” says Bsales.
UK private jet caterer, On Air Dining launched its sustainability initiative in 2017 with an emphasis on environmentally friendly packaging, partnering with like-minded suppliers, and improving operations to reduce environmental impact.
Two years later it introduced its “Farm to Flight” menu, which features only sustainably and locally-sourced meat and produce. The company has also expanded its vegan and vegetarian menu, using seasonal menus allows the firm to support local communities, reduce transportation carbon emissions and provide customers food produced without genetic engineering or intensive farming techniques.
“From our point of view, it's best to talk about how we source food as a whole, we are very particular about sustainable sources,” Daniel Hulme, CEO, On Air Dining tells CJI. “Our lamb comes from Yorkshire, our beef from Trenchmore, which is up the road from our Sussex unit. We also try to source UK vegetables – our lettuce and many of the herbs are from Somerset and Cornwall. There are certain things we won't have in the kitchen, anything on the endangered list. So we won't use bluefin tuna or eel or unsustainable cod. Instead, we use stone bass or sustainable farmed cod. We are particular about finding out where our stuff comes from.”
On Air Dining’s food packaging is completely compostable or recyclable. The paper containers are microwave and oven safe whilst being 100% recyclable and 95% compostable. The packaging is also made from 95% post-consumer waste. The clear containers, bags and pots are made from sugar cane and are 100% compostable.
“Sustainable and recycling packaging has been a drum I have been banging very loud in our business for a long time,” says Hulme. “It's disgraceful the amount of single use plastics that are thrown away into landfill. But the market in the industry is changing, if you go to the big packaging show in Hamburg there's lots of sustainable stuff coming, but it has been a very long and slow burn. One of my big projects from I think probably about five years ago was to get rid of polystyrene, as an ex-scuba diving instructor we used to clear up reefs that were full of single use plastic. Polystyrene is an awful product so we have tried to remove that.”
On Air is also working with a compostable packaging producer to develop compostable trays. “That's the big one now. The Atlas trays that we use everywhere have always been plastic and it's horrific that they get thrown away and we are actually helping a developer come up with a biodegradable version, unfortunately business aviation is a very wasteful industry,” says Hulme.
The company has recycling set up in all kitchen units to reduce food wastage, it tries to work with flight departments to reuse or resell cancelled orders where safe and possible. If unable to reuse or resell, the food is given to FBO operations staff. On Air is reducing printed materials and pushing digital marketing, employee training, and customer support. Planning ahead, the company is looking to convert its refrigerated vehicles to hybrid-electric technology.
Planning on sustainable materials: the Gulfstream G800 interior
When looking to lessen environmental impact inside the cabin, it’s worth looking at the structure of the cabin itself. Gulfstream manufactures aircraft to a set of sustainable standards outlined within its supplier code of conduct.
Gulfstream president, Mark Burns tells CJI: “Sustainable materials used in Gulfstream’s interiors include the wool, cotton and silks used in the carpeting, upholstery and sidewall coverings, among other areas. These are all renewable resources. Natural latex and composite veneers are also used in our cabin interiors and derived from renewable resources – composite veneers are made from rapidly renewable soft wood trees and there is little waste in their production.”
Burns says a great deal of the OEM’s focus on increasing sustainability has centred around the technology both inside and outside the aircraft. “On the next-generation fleet, we have introduced several new technologies that improve efficiencies. One example is our data concentration network that greatly reduces the amount of wiring required for the cabin, galley and flight deck systems.”
One piece of tech that is easy to overlook when it comes to improving aircraft sustainability is Gulfstream’s FAA-approved Enhanced Flight Vision System (EFVS). Using the EFVS means aircraft can land when others are forced to circle or divert, which decreases efficiency and increases fuel usage.
“Gulfstream’s sustainability strategy encompasses three pillars – energy and emissions; operations and culture and learning. In terms of operations, as we expand our service network, we are building modern, sustainable facilities designed with environmentally friendly features,” he says. Gulfstream is also renovating existing facilities to improve operations. In total, it has more than 2.2m sqft of “green” buildings. “More sustainable construction – and therefore more sustainable operations – is driven by our own holistic sustainability vision,” concludes Burns.
Winglets have been making aircraft more efficient, thus more sustainable, since not long after the dawn of aviation. But it was Aviation Partners who pioneered their use in business aviation. It began with its blended winglets for the Gulfstream II in the early ‘90s. In 1995 Clay Lacy knocked two hours off the Los Angeles to Paris world speed record in a blended winglet equipped Gulstream II.
Then Boeing Business Jets came onboard and the winglets became standard equipment on the BBJ. Since then, the firm has designed winglets for Hawker 800/800XPs and Dassault’s popular Falcon 2000, 900 and 50 series. The blended winglets cut drag and improve fuel efficiency by as much as 7%, according to Aviation Partners.
So, the future has arrived when it comes to making each and every business aviation flight more sustainable. As a user, think about the materials used onboard the aircraft, using the right aircraft for the mission and planning ahead. Bsales, of 4Air, says: “This enables the best efficiency for aircraft usage and routing.” As an operator, look at operational improvements (in the air and on the ground), renewable energy, pilot education and training and of course using the most fuel efficient aircraft. On the ground look toward renewables, efficiencies on site, and upgrades to systems. On the aircraft – look at materials used on board.
“Go from low-hanging fruit, that’s easy to initiate and brings immediate reductions, to harder to implement and costlier improvements,” advises Bsales. “Talk to your OEMs, colleagues, aviation community. All aviation stakeholders can support mechanisms like carbon offsets, SAF and the future technologies of aviation.”
