Watch: Meeting Rising Demand for Sustainable Business Travel
Corporations have an important role to play in promoting the use of sustainable aviation fuel, which has the potential to reduce aviation carbon lifecycle emissions by up to 80%.
Watch: Meeting Rising Demand for Sustainable Business Travel
Key takeaways
Aviation accounts for 2-3% of global carbon emissions today, but there is a risk that this could rise to more than 20% by 2050 if no action is taken and air travel grows 鈥 and if other sectors are able to cut emissions more quickly.
Corporations have a unique opportunity to help break the chicken-and-egg issue that is blocking sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from scaling to its full potential.
Facing growing pressure from investors, customers, and regulators to act on the climate challenge, corporations must move swiftly to decarbonise business travel, according to American Express Global Business Travel鈥檚 Vice President of Global Sustainability, Nora Lovell Marchant.
Although aviation is considered a 鈥渉ard to abate鈥 sector 鈥 meaning that reducing CO2 emissions is technically challenging and costly 鈥 companies should not use that as an excuse for inaction but rather to spur bolder action and collaboration, said Nora Lovell Marchant, Vice President of Global Sustainability at American Express Global Business Travel.
鈥淭here's a growing recognition amongst boards and all stakeholders that focusing on environmental, social, and governance issues generates value. That means mitigating risk, creating opportunities, increasing competitive advantage, and making companies more resilient for the future so that they can protect against future existential and systemic challenges,鈥 Lovell Marchant said in an interview with Greenbiz.com editor Joel Makower.
Aviation accounts for 2-3% of global carbon emissions today, but there is a risk that this could rise to more than 20% by 2050, if no action is taken and air travel grows, and if other sectors are able to cut emissions more quickly, Lovell Marchant said, adding that industry agreements to reduce emissions, such as the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), are not enough to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, which requires halving carbon emissions by 2030 and reaching net-zero by 2050.
Five pillars to build a sustainable travel programme
鈥淚n the past, corporate travel was very much focused on cost containment, and the lowest logical fare was the currency. Now there's a shift towards lowest logical carbon. Corporations want to ensure that the trips that their employees are taking are the most sustainable trips possible,鈥 she said.
Lovell Marchant laid out five pillars for building a sustainable travel programme:
- Track and report: Establish a baseline and track against it.
- Influenced choice: Shift to the most sustainable option possible, whether to a different supplier or mode of transport, such as from air to rail.
- Procure green: Use your procurement power to choose suppliers that share your sustainability goals.
- Promote offsets: Buy carbon offsets as they a critical bridge to an aviation future with more decarbonization options.
- Drive towards net zero: Invest in nascent technologies such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), electric aircraft, and carbon capture and storage.
A collaborative approach to solving SAF鈥檚 supply and demand challenge
鈥淚 would encourage corporations to think big picture. Shuffling a couple of business travelers from one airline to another on a particular route is probably imperceptible to the airline at a macro level. That's not going to make them change their behavior. What is required is open and explicit collaboration with your value-chain partners,鈥 Lovell Marchant said.
Nora Lovell Marchant, American Express Global Business Travel鈥淐orporations want to ensure that the trips that their employees are taking are the most sustainable trips possible.鈥
Embrace offsets to go carbon-neutral today
Some 30% of Fortune 500 companies have set a climate commitment for 20304, putting carbon transparency top of mind for procurement professionals, who must align business objectives with their company鈥檚 climate goals, Lovell Marchant said.
鈥淭he one thing that travel buyers can do is to take action today while planning for tomorrow. That means purchasing offsets, because you can take your company carbon-neutral today,鈥 Lovell Marchant said. 鈥淐arbon offsetting is met with a certain degree of skepticism. But as long as offsets are used properly, they are absolutely critical for corporations as part of their overall decarbonization strategy.鈥
Corporations also have an important role to play in promoting the use of SAF, which has the potential to reduce aviation carbon lifecycle emissions by up to 80%5 when used neat yet only accounts for less than 0.1% of global jet-fuel supply, she said.
鈥淭here is a supply problem because there is a demand problem. There are not clear demand signals that are sending the right messages to producers to make more SAF. There needs to be an unlocking of investors that are sitting on the sidelines. Those investors could be corporations who are flying their employees around the world on these airlines. There's a real opportunity here for corporations to help break this chicken-and-egg issue that is blocking SAF from scaling to its full potential,鈥 she said.
While aviation may take a couple years to recover from the pandemic, global air travel will rebound just as it has when faced with previous crises, driven by the human need to connect and by economic growth in developing markets, Lovell Marchant said.鈥淲e truly believe that travel is a force for good. And that's because travel has an unparalleled power to open minds, to connect humans, to connect markets and to increase global prosperity,鈥 she said.
Nora Lovell Marchant, American Express Global Business Travel
Nora serves as the Vice President of Global Sustainability for American Express Global Business Travel, providing subject matter expertise and spearheading sustainability strategy with respect to internal targets and external products and services. Previously, she was a litigator at Schulte, Roth & Zabel, specialising in environmental law. Nora has a B.S. in Environmental Science from Cornell University and a J.D. fromThe George Washington University Law School.
More from Flightpath
Shell is proud to bring together leading voices for aviation鈥檚 sustainable future. Subscribe to get updated through our Flightpath newsletter.Stay up to date with Flightpath
Watch: Powering Sustainable Flight for the Next Generation
There is no singular answer to reduce aviation emissions鈥 the key lies in several methods being implemented at scale by multiple stakeholders, simultaneously, according to the Former President of Shell Aviation, Anna Mascolo.