I keep looking at this screenshot of the world’s first 100% commercial SAF flight* and wonder how we get from where we are today, to where we need to be tomorrow with sustainable air travel?
The enormity of the challenge is reflected in the sheer number of fossil-burning aircraft in fight-radar images like this across our skies every day. I cannot help but wonder how accounting standards, like the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, are ever going to make it happen?
The idea of calculating and compensating emissions by both Airlines (Scope 1) and Corporate Clients (Scope 3) is so unnecessarily complicated.
Like it or not, fewer flights are not something people want either, and therefore the challenge is how to transition from fossil jet fuel to more sustainable aviation fuel, while funding the increased development and production costs of these new fuels.
The fuel will cost more, and airline customers will need to pay for their share of it, but we need to make this as easy and inclusive as possible – and not so complicated it never happens.
Corporate clients have a significant role to play here, and rather than wait for environmental groups to invent accounting standards, can help to lead and shape the transition to a more sustainable business travel future.
*VS100 London New York 28 November 2023