Buyers from Boeing, BCG, Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Netflix, and Salesforce have today founded a new corporate alliance intended to accelerate the path to net zero aviation through investment in sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs).
The Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA), launched with the clean energy thinktank RMI and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) non-profits, will catalyse new SAF production and technological innovation and will help establish a rigorous, transparent SAF certification system.
“The Sustainable
Aviation Buyers Alliance adds momentum to existing airline-company partnerships
that support the purchase of sustainable aviation fuels,” said Kelley Kizzier, vice
president of the global climate programme at EDF. “SABA will build on the work
of these early movers, many of whom seek a more scalable, standardised
approach, by establishing a SAF certificate system with robust environmental
criteria. Working with sustainability certification schemes, this system will
verify and track emission reductions from SAF so that companies, organisations
and even individual travellers can achieve their ambitious climate goals.”
“SABA will build on
the strong foundation of these global efforts, and develop a system that
enables SAF to grow at the same pace and scale that renewable electricity grew
over the last decade,” said Ned Harvey, managing director, climate intelligence
at RMI.
SABA secretariat
lead Kim Carnahan, former US chief negotiator for climate change and director
of disruption technologies at Engie Impact said, “Today is just the
beginning for SABA. We will announce additional founding companies soon and
plan to open for broad membership at the COP26 climate conference in November
2021.”
Rich Lesser, CEO of BCG said, “BCG has set a bold ambition to achieve net-zero climate impact by
2030 and we support efforts to scale the adoption of sustainable aviation fuels
and decarbonise air travel.”
Elizabeth Willmott,
carbon programme manager at Microsoft, said, “Microsoft has a bold commitment to
become carbon negative by 2030 and this requires us to create innovative new
solutions and partnerships. As a corporate buyer and vocal supporter of high
quality SAF, we’re pleased to join together with companies leading on climate
action to support SABA’s mission to decarbonize aviation and ultimately,
increase SAF production and adoption.”
Dr Emma Stewart,
Netflix sustainability officer, said: “Air travel plays an important role in
how Netflix entertains the world — we can’t produce films, TV series and nature
documentaries without it. We’re co-founding the Sustainable Aviation Buyers
Alliance to build a future where climate-friendly air travel is possible, and
invite other companies to join the charge.”
United and Lufthansa have recently announced corporate initiatives focused on the adoption of SAFs.