As part of a multi-million-pound investment programme to overhaul and reduce emissions from its ground fleet at London’s Heathrow Airport, more than 90% of British Airways’ vehicles and ground support equipment (GSE) are now either zero emissions electrical equipment when used or driven, hybrids or are operating on hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) fuel. The airline has further plans over the next two years for switching other equipment and vehicles to electric, hybrid or HVO. As well as saving CO2 emissions, the changes are aimed at reducing negative air quality impacts around the Heathrow area. Heathrow Airport itself has switched over 95% of its operational diesel fleet to run on HVO. It has also launched an initiative, the Heathrow Fly Up, to create awareness among travellers in response to a survey showing only 14% had heard of sustainable aviation fuels.

The ground energy transition programme at Heathrow by British Airways is part of a £7 billion ($9bn) investment plan unveiled recently by the airline to transform many parts of its business over the next three years.

“We are committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner and our focus isn’t just about reducing emissions in the air, but on the ground too,” commented Tom Moran, British Airways’ Director of Heathrow. “This major investment into our vehicles at Heathrow is our largest investment in more sustainable airport ground operations to date and is part of our wider environmental objective to minimise emissions from our airside ground operation.”

Having replaced more than 750 pieces of GSE with HVO-fuelled versions last year, BA is this year introducing 135 new electric baggage tugs that will use new energy-efficient chargers. Over the next two years, it will replace diesel passenger aircraft steps with electric alternatives, saving 370 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, swapping diesel-powered cargo vehicles with hybrid electric versions and replacing all diesel passenger buses with electric or HVO versions that will save 800 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually. A large charging park is now in the early stages of development at the airport.

Replacing the use of diesel with HVO in GSE is an interim measure, says BA, while it gradually transitions to zero emissions or hybrid equipment. Provided by the airline’s current SAF supplier Phillips 66, the use of HVO is anticipated to save more than 6,000 tonnes of CO2 per year compared to traditional diesel fuel, the equivalent of more than 8,000 round-trip economy passenger journeys between Heathrow and New York JFK, it says.

“I am incredibly proud of this project, which has been driven by our Heathrow ground operations teams and encapsulates our BA Better World ethos of raising awareness of our strategy to all of our colleagues, and inspiring them to play a part in minimising our environmental impact where possible,” said Carrie Harris, Director of Sustainability at British Airways. ”Their energy, enthusiasm and innovative approach in bringing the project to life shows what can be achieved and this investment demonstrates our ongoing commitment to making improvements across our business that will benefit both our customers and colleagues.”

The airline has just published its latest sustainability report, BA Better World Report 2023, which shows it reduced carbon intensity in 2023 to 86.2g CO2/epk (equivalent passenger km) – 10% lower than pre-pandemic levels in 2019 and a 3% intensity improvement from 2022. Intensity performance declined to 110g CO2/pkm (passenger km) in 2020, at the height of the Covid pandemic, and has recovered steadily since then. Emissions from jet fuel consumption fell from just over 19 million tonnes in 2019 to just under 15 million tonnes in 2023, a fall of 21%.

The airline reports using more than 50,000 tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel in 2023, representing 1% of total fuel supply, a five-fold increase on the 9,980 tonnes of SAF utilised in 2022, and mitigating around 150,000 tonnes of CO2 in lifecycle emissions. BA helped corporate and cargo customers reduce over 142,000 tonnes of their Scope 3 emissions in 2023. It is aiming to reach 10% SAF usage by 2030.

Meanwhile, Heathrow Airport has set a goal for 11% of the jet fuel used at the airport to be SAF by 2030. Its pioneering scheme to incentivise the use of SAF at the airport by approximately halving the price gap between conventional jet fuel and SAF to make it more affordable to airlines has, it says, resulted in around 10% of the world’s SAF being used at Heathrow in 2022. The scheme is targeting 2.5% of all fuel used at Heathrow to be SAF in 2024, representing up to 155,000 tonnes of fuel.

Heathrow says SAF is the single biggest driver to help it reach net zero by 2050 and is trying to raise its importance and understanding to travellers passing through the airport. It has launched a “biofuel breakfast”, dubbed the Fly Up, in association with Heston Blumenthal’s Perfectionists’ Café in Terminal 2, which is cooked with oil that is then collected, cleaned and recycled by waste management service Quatra. The processed used oil is then sent elsewhere to be transformed into biofuels including SAF and HVO.

The Heathrow Fly Up

In addition to just 14% of travellers having heard of SAF, new research by Opinium of 2,000 UK adults reveals only 27% believe SAF will make the aviation industry more sustainable. Heathrow says it is actively encouraging passengers to use climate tech company CHOOOSE that has a platform to provide an option to support SAF or certified reforestation projects, regardless of their airline or end destination.

“We are delighted to partner with Heston Blumenthal’s Perfectionists’ Café to introduce the Fly Up, a breakfast that not only gives passengers a delicious start to the day but will raise awareness about SAF and its potential to transform the industry,” said Matt Gorman, Heathrow’s Director of Carbon. “By demonstrating how cooking oils can be converted into biofuels, we want people to understand how SAF is a real solution to decarbonise aviation and show how we’re continuing our mission to get to net zero by 2050.”

Top photo: British Airways HVO fuel tanker at Heathrow

Christopher Surgenor

Editor

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Leading B2B travel platform American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) has reached an agreement with CHOOOSE to integrate the climate tech company’s carbon emissions calculations across Amex GBT’s travel booking and reporting tools. With the integration, business travellers will see consistent trip emissions values in their search results, itineraries and in the Amex GBT Mobile app for past and future trips. Currently, Amex GBT displays carbon emission data in its online booking tool Neo to help travellers make “educated, sustainable” decisions and the new move will replace current calculation mechanisms with seamlessly integrated emissions calculations from CHOOOSE. Travel managers will be able to apply CHOOOSE-powered calculations to trips booked since 2019 for tracking, analysing and managing carbon footprints. Amex GBT said the integration is an important step in building the architecture for additional carbon compensation solutions across its products and services portfolio.

“Flights are the single largest contributor to business travel emissions, so our first priority is to help our clients keep up with evolving standards for calculating aviation emissions,” commented Mark McSpadden, Amex GBT’s VP of product strategy and user experience. “We are integrating solutions that give clients more choice, enhance our tools with more granular CO2 calculations and allow us to serve up robust, consistent data across our suite of booking, tracking and reporting tools. This helps educate travellers and drive real progress in sustainable travel.”

The new solution will let travel managers select a preferred calculation methodology and seamlessly apply that preference across online booking, mobile app and itinerary solutions. This, said Amex GBT, will provide more visibility into the traveller’s individual carbon footprint, “helping them better understand the environmental impact of travel and influence their booking behaviour.”

The integration will also allow Amex GBT to access industry-accepted air travel emissions methodologies, for example those of ICAO, UK BEIS, US EPA and France ADEME. Amex GBT also integrates with additional data sources such as IATA CO2 Connect, an emissions calculator developed with real airline data and based on IATA’s Recommended Practice RP 1726.

The company said this will give clients the flexibility to include more criteria such as distance, fuel burn, occupancy, cabin class and belly cargo to provide a higher degree of accuracy. Where applicable by methodology, customers can also select their preferences on radiative forcing (to account for non-CO2 climate impacts) and well-to-wake emissions, which is critical  for measuring the benefits of sustainable aviation fuel. Emissions data for additional travel segments such as rail, car and hotel will follow, said Amex GBT, with additional methodologies and features available over time.

Added the company: “Clients will have options to compensate for their business travel emissions via a diverse portfolio of climate solutions, integrated seamlessly into their booking and reporting tools. For example, these will include carbon offsets and insets, carbon removals and emerging decarbonisation solutions.”

CHOOOSE data will also support sustainable meeting and events solutions, “providing a consistent client experience with reliable data across Amex GBT’s services.” Amex GBT’s global B2B travel tech platform Egencia will integrate certain CHOOOSE-powered emissions calculations, including its reporting tool.

“We are very happy to support Amex GBT, and the millions of travellers they serve, in creating an industry-leading set of tools to track, understand and address the carbon footprint associated with business travel,” said Andreas Sletvoll, CEO and founder of Oslo-headquartered CHOOSE. “Together, we are taking an end-to-end approach with a deep focus on delivering calculation methodologies in line with the latest industry guidance and seamless access to both immediately available and frontier climate solutions.”

The CHOOOSE platform has been selected by a number of airlines including Southwest, Avianca, Japan Airlines, LATAM, Air Canada, Finnair, Iberia, Norwegian and British Airways.

Christopher Surgenor

Editor

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Following the recent launch of British Airways’ CO₂llaborate online platform that enables customers to address the carbon footprint of their flights through the purchase of carbon offsets and/or sustainable aviation fuel, a new third option has been provided in the form of carbon removals. Whereas traditional carbon offsets are created when a project avoids, reduces or removes additional CO2 emissions from the atmosphere, carbon removal credits are issued by nature, biomass or technology based projects that remove CO2 from the atmosphere or from the carbon cycle. The platform offers customers a choice of a combination of carbon offsetting and SAF or carbon removals and SAF, with a slider for each option to select the preferred amount of SAF. Two independently certified carbon removal projects are being supported, one restoring a mangrove forest in the Indus Delta area of Pakistan and the other a biochar project in Oregon, USA. More projects are expected to be added over time, said the airline.

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR), also known as negative CO2 emissions, is a process in which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and sequestered for long periods of time. The carbon removal sector is still comparatively young, but is increasingly being seen by scientists, governments and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as essential to address climate impacts. The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report said the deployment of CDR to counterbalance hard-to-abate residual emissions from sectors like transportation is unavoidable if net zero CO2 or GHG emissions are to be achieved. By the end of the century, carbon removal will be expected to help achieve net-negative emissions and bring temperatures back down from their peak.

CDR encompasses a wide array of approaches, including direct air capture (DAC) coupled to durable storage, soil carbon sequestration, biomass carbon removal and storage, enhanced mineralisation, ocean-based CDR and afforestation and reforestation.

As part of its commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 “or sooner”, with its parent company International Airlines Group (IAG), British Airways says it is supporting research and innovation to help accelerate the development of CDR solutions. “The airline is considering projects that are immediately available and independently verified today, as well as more innovative technology solutions,” it said.

Coastal blue carbon ecosystems are some of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet, with an estimated 340,000 to 980,000 hectares being destroyed each year. The nature-based Delta Blue Carbon mangrove forest restoration project claims to be the biggest of its kind in the world, being implemented over an area of 350,000 hectares in total – an area the size of Luxembourg – with reforestation and revegetation comprising 226,000 hectares. In recent decades the mangroves were devastated by large-scale deforestation and used as fuel and fodder, with further damage caused by open-range livestock grazing.

In just six years, tens of millions of mangrove seedlings have been re-planted, restoring more than 73,000 hectares of degraded mangrove forests and tidal wetlands. Over the next 60 years, the wetlands are expected to sequester an estimated 142 million tonnes of CO2e. Studies have found that mangrove forests can hold up to four times more carbon than other tropical rainforests.

The project is one of the first to use Verra’s Blue Carbon tidal wetland methodology, which accounts for the effects of sea level rise over the project’s lifetime. It is certified by VCS (Verified Carbon Standard) and CCB (Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards).

The Delta Blue Carbon mangrove forest project

In the second project, timber company Freres Lumber’s biomass power production plant produces biochar, a carbon-rich charcoal-like material that is created when agricultural and wood waste is used as fuel. The process locks carbon into the solid material and prevents it from naturally decaying and keeping it out of the atmosphere for hundreds of years. Carbon that is stored in the biochar was originally harvested from the atmosphere through photosynthesis of the tree.

Last year, Freres joined international online marketplace Puro.earth, which helps companies reduce or eliminate their carbon footprints. The vehicle used to measure and report the amount of sequestered carbon is called a CO2 Removal Certificate, or a CORC, and buyers retire CORCs in the Puro registry to support their sustainability or net zero claims. Puro certifies suppliers based on the Puro Standard, with removals independently verified by a third party. The Puro Standard is the first carbon removal standard for engineered carbon removal methods in the voluntary carbon market, with carbon removal methodologies aligned with the IPCC definition for carbon removal. Each CORC represents a volume of one tonne of CO2 removal and the Puro website quotes a price of €110 per Freres Biochar CORC.

The cost of choosing carbon removal on BA’s CO₂llaborate platform – a partnership with climate tech company Chooose – is therefore more expensive than the carbon offsetting option. As an example, a round-trip journey in economy class between London and New York results in CO2e emissions of just under 700kgs per passenger. The adjustable slider defaults to a preferred 10% use of SAF against a 90% use of carbon offsetting, or 90% carbon removals if this option is chosen. The former choice would carry a price of £20.17 ($24), the latter more than double at £44.91. Choosing carbon offsetting entirely would cost £7.66 compared to £33.35 if opting for 100% carbon removal. Customer contributions to the SAF option are supporting the purchase of renewable fuel through BA’s partnership with Phillips 66, which is added to the existing fuel pipeline at Heathrow Airport.

The airline is already offsetting the carbon emissions of all its flights within the UK. For flights within Europe, the emissions calculation is adjusted to reflect British Airways’ participation in regulatory emissions trading systems such as the EU ETS and UK ETS so that emissions are not double counted.

“In 2019, when we committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, we identified that a vital way to meet this goal would be by using carbon removals and we currently expect that these could contribute up to a third of our total action,” commented Carrie Harris, Director of Sustainability at British Airways. “While we continue to drive action to reduce our emissions now, including by improving operational efficiency, investing in more fuel-efficient aircraft and scaling up the availability of sustainable aviation fuel, we’re excited to be supporting research and innovation to accelerate the scale-up of carbon removal solutions.

“By choosing carbon removal projects as part of their action to address the emissions associated with flying, our customers are not only joining us on our journey to a more sustainable future, but also helping accelerate the development of the vital carbon removal industry.”

In July, BA parent IAG joined with Airbus and a number of major airlines to sign Letters of Intent to explore opportunities for a future supply of carbon removal credits from direct air carbon capture technology. As part of the agreements, the airlines have committed to engage in negotiations on the possible pre-purchase of verified and durable carbon removal credits starting in 2028 through to 2028. The carbon removal credits will be issued by Airbus partner 1PointFive – a subsidiary of Occidental’s Low Carbon Ventures business and the global deployment partner of DAC company Carbon Engineering. The Airbus partnership with 1PointFive includes the pre-purchase of 400,000 tonnes of carbon removal credits to be delivered over four years.

On November 30, the European Commission is expected to table a legislative proposal that would establish a regulatory framework for the certification of carbon removals.

BA Better World explainer video on carbon removals

Top photo: British Airways

British Airways has agreed to accelerate the Project Speedbird large-scale sustainable aviation fuel production initiative it created in 2021 with LanzaJet and Nova Pangaea Technologies. As part of the agreement, the airline’s parent company IAG will invest in the next phase of development work, with construction to begin possibly as early as next year and production to start in 2026. Located in the north-east of England, the project would transform agricultural and wood waste into 102 million litres of SAF per year, which BA would offtake to help power its flights. Meanwhile, the airline has also launched enhanced online platforms for its corporate and individual customers to calculate flight carbon emissions and mitigate their climate impact. Customers have previously been able to use the airline’s carbon offsetting tool to purchase offsets and sustainable aviation fuel but in a partnership with climate tech company CHOOOSE, the new CO₂llaborate programme will give them more control over the amount of SAF versus verified carbon offsets they wish to purchase.

Project Speedbird was granted nearly £500,000 ($570,000) by the UK’s Department for Transport (DfT) ‘Green Fuels, Green Skies’ competition to fund an initial feasibility study for the early-stage development of the project. With the work now completed, the next stage of development is now ready to proceed, says British Airways, and the partners have applied for an additional grant from the DfT’s Advanced Fuels Fund.

“SAF is in high demand but in short supply across the globe and so it is essential that we scale up its production as quickly as possible,” commented the airline’s Director of Sustainability, Carrie Harris. “With further investment and continued government support, Speedbird will be a key and pioneering project in the production of SAF here in the UK.”

Once in operation, the facility would be the first in the UK to utilise independently verified sustainably-sourced agricultural and wood waste to produce SAF. The SAF will be developed using a combination of technologies based on Nova Pangaea’s REFNOVA proprietary patented process of converting the waste into bioethanol and also biochar, a carbon-rich charcoal-like material left over after processing and considered a natural carbon removal method. Biochar can be used to amend and restore impoverished soils by better retaining nutrients required for plants to grow, and by filtering healthy water for accelerated crop growth, delivering a circular economy for the agriculture industry. Biochar can replace fertilisers that use fossil fuels as their feedstock and removes carbon from the atmosphere, with the potential to generate high-integrity carbon credits.

“This project will deliver the first end-to-end, sustainable value chain from agricultural and wood waste to SAF in the UK,” said Sarah Ellerby, CEO at Nova Pangaea Technologies, which has a pre-commercial plant expected to be in commercial production in 2023. “The support from British Airways is a vote of huge confidence in our technology and will accelerate its commercialisation.”

Added Harris: “The biochar carbon removal opportunities are another important aspect of this impressive, innovative project that can contribute to our net zero action.”

LanzaJet’s proprietary and patented alcohol-to-jet technology will be utilised to convert the bioethanol to produce SAF and renewable diesel.

The SAF produced would reduce net lifecycle emissions by 230,000 tonnes a year, claim the partners, the equivalent emissions of around 26,000 British Airways domestic flights. Overall, the facility would have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 770,000 tonnes a year through the additional production of biochar and 11 million litres of renewable diesel.

“The UK is a critical market in the decarbonisation of the aviation industry and this partnership brings together the full value chain from agricultural and wood waste to finished SAF and use by British Airways. As the UK sits at an inflection point in its quest to decarbonise, Project Speedbird represents historical significance with an eye towards the future,” commented Jimmy Samartzis, CEO of LanzaJet. The airline is already an investor in LanzaJet, which last month announced it had received a $50 million grant from Breakthrough Energy towards funding of its Freedom Pines Fuels SAF facility in Georgia, US.

Under a multi-year agreement with energy company Phillips 66, BA is already using supplies of SAF produced at the Phillips 66 Humber Refinery, also in north-east England, to power a number of its flights from London Heathrow, and the airline’s customers can contribute towards purchase of the SAF to reduce their flight emissions.

Under its partnership with CHOOOSE, the CO₂llaborate programme has new platforms for corporate and individual customers. Individuals can take climate action before, during or after their journey, and offers a more precise emissions calculation than before and more control over the amount of SAF versus verified carbon offsets they wish to purchase through a new adjustable slider feature. They can access the platform directly from their seat during flight using the airline’s free wi-fi portal, or at any time before or after their flight by visiting the CO₂llaborate platform accessible on ba.com. Choosing the carbon offset option supports a rainforest protection project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and an energy-efficient cookstove project in Nigeria, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In a first for corporate customers, the CO₂llaborate platform will also offer a dedicated climate programme for companies to measure, reduce and manage the carbon emissions associated with their business flying. They will get access to a dashboard that shows the CO2 emissions generated from their business travel and receive monthly emissions reports. Companies will then be able to select how to address their carbon emissions by selecting specific climate solutions ranging from purchasing SAF to contributing to certified carbon offset projects. BA says the platform will enable users to track and report on their climate impact over time and learn about the climate solutions they are supporting.

“We know that many of our customers want to fly with sustainability in mind and while we work on delivering our own short, medium and long term initiatives to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, we know many of our customers want to take action today too,” said BA’s Harris. “This new CO₂llaborate platform further empowers our customers to make sustainable choices when flying with us. We look forward to working with CHOOOSE to evolve the platform as we continue to drive the decarbonisation of our industry.”

The venture-backed, Norway-based CHOOOSE describes itself as a complete platform that enables its partners to build and manage high-impact climate programmes through flexible integrations, customer-friendly interfaces, automated carbon measurement and a connected marketplace of climate solutions.

“Partnering with British Airways is a true milestone in bringing climate solutions to both leisure and corporate travellers,” commented CHOOOSE CEO and Founder Andreas Slettvoll. “British Airways has always been a north star to us in innovation in the airline industry and we are proud to support them in their relentless work on their most important journey yet, their journey to net zero.”

Image: British Airways