Blue skies going greener

Dutch airline KLM is out to prove sustainable aviation has wings…

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is committed to the cause of sustainable aviation. Eight years ago, it was the first airline to operate a commercial flight using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and in June it wrote an open letter, published in newspapers worldwide, asking the aviation industry and its customers to support its Fly Responsibly campaign.

The airline isn’t asking for something for nothing, though. KLM has committed itself to sharing its sustainability learnings, best practices and tools with its competitors. It has also committed to organising panel discussions where the industry’s great and good can put their heads together in the interests of aviation’s future.

And it is putting its money where its mouth is, having pledged to buy 75,000 tonnes of SAF a year for the next ten years from SkyNRG, the market leader for SAF, which hopes to open the first plant dedicated to its production in 2022.

The aviation industry is responsible for between 2 and 3 per cent of the world’s human-caused carbon dioxide emissions. Due to the growth in world population, trade and wealth, that percentage is expected to rise in years to come. KLM has made considerable progress in reducing its environmental footprint, having occupied a top spot in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the past 14 years, but it can’t make the progress that’s required all on its own.

Industry-wide cooperation is what’s needed, and KLM is leading by example, sharing its knowledge in the field with other airlines and offering its passengers a carbon offsetting service, CO2ZERO, which allows them to compensate for their flight-related carbon emissions by financing a reduction in emissions elsewhere.

The compensation has been invested in cooking equipment in Ghana, Mali, Uganda and Kenya; and in a reforestation project in Panama, which, in addition to its environmental benefits, has provided locals with more than 150 jobs.

KLM has invested in what will be the first SAF plant in Europe, and believes that building partnerships with its competitors – and corporations outside of the industry – is now essential if biofuel production is going to be stepped up to make its use practicable on the sort of scale that will make a substantial difference.

For more information about KLM’s Fly Responsibly initiative, visit flyresponsibly.klm.com/en