After decades of continuous growth in the travel sector, concern for the environment has risen to unprecedented levels over the last two years. This is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.
After decades of continuous growth in the travel sector, concern for the environment has risen to unprecedented levels over the last two years. This is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.
At Amadeus, we strongly believe that, when it comes to sustainability, we need to work together with all industry players in a collaborative way, so that each can contribute their own unique expertise for the common long-term goal of a more sustainable and resilient sector.
With this in mind, Amadeus recently hosted awebinar to examine the key challenges we face in creating a more environmentally sustainable industry – and how we might overcome them. Key partners and industry experts,Travalyst ,CHOOOSE andCaphenia , shared their views on some of the most pressing topics on the environmental agenda.
Measuring the environmental impact of travel is a challenge in its own right, while scant supplies of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) limit access to one of the game-changing innovations in this space. To understand what can be done until SAF can be produced and commercialized, we discussed the advances in carbon offsetting to see the significant changes taking place.
Let us examine each area in a little more detail.
Accurate carbon calculation and measurement
While there is now a consensus on the need to build a more sustainable future for the travel industry, significant action is required to address climate change, and we are yet to reach agreement on how to measure key environmental impacts of travel. With many organizations offering different methodologies, solutions and estimates, the monitoring landscape can be confusing.
Travalyst , founded by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, in 2019, aims to help overcome this challenge. It brings together some of the biggest travel companies globally, providing support and guidance in finding joint solutions and aligned approaches to important global issues. Tim Loonen, head of product and partnerships with Travalyst, explained that their goal is to bring credible, consistent sustainability information to the mainstream, helping both travelers and travel companies make more well-informed and responsible choices.
By creating this shared baseline in our understanding of where we are today, the organization hopes to equip travelers with the information they need to make sustainable travel choices.
Amadeus recently joined the Travalyst coalition, believing that by collectively having a better understanding the impact of travel we take the first step toward reducing it.
Immediate climate action options
As the industry obtains more accurate calculations of the impact of travel, we appreciate more clearly the scale of change needed. But a consequent challenge our industry faces is that important innovations and tools needed to make this change – including Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), access to renewable energy and new eco-friendly materials – still need to scale up to meet demand. While these technologies will undoubtedly prove valuable in the medium- and long-term, we must also work on other, complementary areas as they develop. Carbon offsetting is one of them.
This is where Amadeus’ partnersCHOOOSE comes in. CHOOOSE provides one of the leading global platforms to build, manage and report on customer centric climate action programs for the travel industry. CHOOOSE partners directly with major airlines and other travel stakeholders to integrate climate action options – including both carbon offsets and SAF – into the travel experience.
This can be through automated emissions calculations, a vetted marketplace of climate solutions (verified carbon offsets, carbon removals and SAF) that travelers can easily support, or climate program reporting.
As CHOOOSE chief executive, Andreas Slettvoll, explored during our webinar, the carbon offsetting market has developed at pace in recent years. It has professionalized and integrated into the wider travel ecosystem; offsets can now be integrated into the booking flow and purchased as part of the transaction. This has driven adoption. There has also been growing interest from corporates who need accurate CO2 reporting to meet growing environmental compliance requirements.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel as a medium- and long-term solution
In the longer-term, Slettvoll and CHOOOSE also advocate a switch in focus to insetting, i.e., projects aimed at reducing carbon emissions in the sector where they are created (within a company’s value chain).
A great example is Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), which has the potential to transform the aviation sector in the long-term. But here we find a similar problem - there is simply not enough SAF available in the current market to make a sufficient impact immediately.
Caphenia is working to change that. The company aims to provide renewable fuels for all sectors of mobility, with construction on a pilot plant set to begin in 2023. Potential fuels can be used as drop-in fuels in existing aircraft, ships and vehicles. This means that no adaptation of the infrastructure is necessary, and an immediate saving of CO2 emissions becomes possible.
As Mark Misselhorn, chief executive of Caphenia, explains, what works on the ground might not be so useful in the air. While electric cars have seen an explosion in growth in recent years, the battery needed to power a plane would weigh thousands of tons – making it rather impractical. SAF is likely to play a major role in the aviation sector in the coming years, with Misselhorn urging governments to address blending mandates in order to create incentives for investment. Blending mandates call for SAF to make up a certain proportion of the fuel used on flights departing from a specific country or region.
Looking ahead to a sustainable future
While the scale and speed of the change required to build a sustainable travel industry is not to be underestimated, we can see work is being done around the world to overcome the challenges we face.
At Amadeus, we recognize that sustainability in the travel industry is a global challenge and, by definition, we need to work in cooperation to provide global solutions. Together with our partners across the industry, we believe we can build more efficient and sustainable travel solutions for the benefit of the industry.
It is through the adoption of a strategic and collaborative approach together with customers, partners, and institutions that we will be able to make the changes we need in our industry and beyond.
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