Sustainable aviation fuels has arrived, or has it?

A groundbreaking milestone was achieved this week, as the first transatlantic flight by a commercial airline fueled entirely by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) arrived in New York from London. It's arguably worthy of the kind of commemoration the first Wright Brothers' flight received 120 years ago. ?

The transatlantic trip by Virgin Atlantic’s Boeing 787 demonstrates how fossil fuels can be replaced by biofuels without any adaptation to jet engines. The biofuels in this case were a combination of waste fats and synthetic kerosene. It strengthens the confidence that a group of 60 companies across the airline, transport and cargo industries have for their pledge to reach at least 10 percent SAF use for global jet aviation fuel supply by 2030.

The aviation industry is facing the significant challenge of reducing its carbon emissions and placing some big bets on the future of SAF to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by up to 80 percent over conventional jet fuels. SAF-enabled airplanes can be fueled by oil from plants and nuts, forestry and agricultural waste, and gases from steel mills.?

Drawback of SAF

However, because of limited production and distribution capacity, the cost of SAF is very high. We know that producing sustainable aviation fuel at scale globally, is a major challenge. For example, it would require around half of the UK’s agricultural land to keep that country’s airlines flying on SAF at today’s levels of travel alone, not to mention the growth in airline travel expected in the years to come. Despite this, already 225,000 passenger flights have flown on a blend of sustainable and conventional fuel globally.

Traveling by plane is the most damaging way to travel for the environment. It’s not just the CO2 pumped out from jet engines that have an impact. Other substances, including water in the form of contrails, as well as soot and nitrous oxides, all trap additional heat in our atmosphere. Air transportation emissions significantly contribute to air pollution, and long-term exposure can cause chronic conditions such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases as well as lung cancer.

Net Zero Momentum

A number of large reputable airlines including British Airways and Air Canada have announced net zero targets. United Airlines was the first to commit to reduce its GHG emissions by 100 percent by 2050 without relying on offsets. Their plan includes a combination of constant fleet renewal, operational improvements, and investments in SAF, and direct air capture technology for carbon removal contributed to this achievement.

The Jet Zero Council was formed by the UK Government in 2021 to help meet the Government’s ‘net zero by 2050’ commitment. The council is a partnership between industry and government, which brings together senior leaders in aviation, aerospace, and academia to drive the development of new technologies and innovative ways to cut aviation emissions.?

The Council is working to industrialize and commercialize clean aviation and aerospace technologies and develop a coordinated approach to the policy and regulatory framework needed to deliver net zero aviation by 2050.The Travel Sector has developed a Roadmap to Net Zero through the World Travel and Tourism Council, which encompasses aviation, accommodation, cruise and tour operations. The aviation sector has also published its own Net Zero roadmap through the International Air Transport Association, which is heavily based on rapid expansion of SAF as well as newer technologies such as hydrogen.?

Hydrogen is seen as a longer-term solution but producing sufficient green hydrogen fuel - that is fuel derived from renewable power - would require up to 3.5 times the UK’s total wind and solar capacity. There simply isn’t enough available to produce enough of these fuels to fly us all.?

Impact on Events Industry

For those in the events industry, the emissions generated by attendee travel are in almost all cases the largest single contributor to an event’s carbon footprint. Data collected from across the events industry in France over a two-year period, demonstrates this to be the case even for national events where travel distances may be less than for international events. This has led the government of France to ban domestic short-haul flights where train alternatives exist.

Events certifying as ‘carbon neutral’ that don’t account for their full value chain including audience travel are choosing to ignore industry best practice and opening themselves up to accusations of greenwash.?

Take Responsibility

Although audience, artist and supplier travel fall into the category of Scope 3 emissions in your value chain, event organizers have a responsibility to influence audience and supplier behavior and explore the potential for collaboration with speakers, performers, travel bookers, venues, tourism boards, local transit authorities, and airlines.?

There's a lack of awareness and demand for sustainable transport options among event attendees. Many people may not be aware of the environmental impacts of their travel choices or lack the incentives to choose more sustainable modes of transport. For example, a survey by ecolibrium found that 50 percent of UK festival goers were aware of their travel carbon footprint but only 20 percent were willing to pay more for greener travel options.?

It's important to offer sustainable travel options to your audience but expect that some will still fly regardless. Plan your event with the audience travel experience in mind and explore partnership opportunities to offset the cost of public transit, trains, or coaches. Encourage audience members to travel economy when they fly and select a direct flight with an airline that’s demonstrably committed to reducing their impact on the planet.?

By any means necessary, strongly discourage the use of private planes for anyone coming to your event. “A private jet is the most polluting form of transport you can take,” according to a report by Transport & Environment, a European clean transport campaign organization. “The average private jet emits two tonnes of carbon an hour,” which is 14 times more polluting, per passenger, than commercial planes and 50 times more polluting than trains.

Encourage Your Audience

Leverage your social media channels to promote the sustainable mobility options available for your audience to participate in, and highlight incentives to drive participation including prize draws, early entry, VIP passes, and priority parking.

Provide concise information about the environmental impacts of travel. Use solutions focused framing so that decisions such as taking public transit are consciously communicated as active and positive choices made by a like-minded group of audience members, rather than selfless sacrifices or inconveniences made by individuals acting alone.?

Engaging people about travel to the event during the point of purchase helps them to make a decision and plan their journey in advance as well as invest in carbon offset projects at the same time. Later communications about sustainable travel options might require users to log back in to take action, after forgetting their password. Most people simply won’t do that. The simpler the process the better.?

You can set defaults to opt-out of purchasing offsets rather than opt in. This creates an assumption that everyone is in unless they tell you otherwise.?

Measure Travel?

If you don’t have a dedicated sustainability officer, appoint a Green Champion or team who will be responsible for gathering and calculating travel data. Ask them to collect travel data from your team, including flight and gas station receipts.

Choose local suppliers and contractors when possible and collect information on their mileage, vehicle type, and empty load mileage associated with your event from key contractors. You can add a request for this in the service agreement.?

Collect travel data from your artists and speakers when they arrive onsite, as part of contracts or directly from their travel agent. For artists doing multiple dates on the same tour, apportion flight impacts accordingly.?

To collect audience travel data, you may have postcode data from your ticket agent, which can be used to work out the total and average mileage traveled by your audience.?You can also use a survey to verify how your audience traveled; either at the event or as a follow-up online.?

The data doesn’t have to be perfect. If you don’t know the exact miles, you can use an average based on the demographic of your audience locations or from a survey of a small number of attendees.?

Big changes are coming to the aviation sector. Sustainable aviation fuels will likely play some role in lowering the impact of travel and it's important to stay engaged in innovation breakthroughs in this area. With more and more people flying, if they are doing so to participate in your gatherings, you must accept the responsibility that comes with the impact as it is part of your overall footprint. Begin by measuring this part of your impact and leverage your influence to guide people towards the most sustainable options available.

Leor Rotchild is a speaker, host of the podcast Pipelines and Turbines, and author of the forthcoming book How We Gather Matters: Sustainable Event Planning for Purpose and Impact.