How to successfully scale up Sustainable Aviation Fuel solutions

Expanding the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) faces the classic ‘chicken and egg’ challenge. In 2022, 450,000 flights used SAF, up from 500 in 2016. But that’s still less than 1% of the jet fuel market. The cost remains high, which keeps demand low. To increase demand, producers need capital to invest in new production capacity and reach a scale that competes with existing fossil fuels. But many shippers are unwilling or unable to pay the price premiums necessary to fund these investments.

Here's the thing: we need SAF right now. The climate crisis requires every industry to decarbonize, and transportation is falling behind. Long-distance commercial flights cause the most air transport emissions and there are no real alternatives to SAF. Battery technology is not ready for long-distance commercial flights, and hydrogen power is not mature enough to replace jet engines in larger aircraft. 

Collaborating with committed partners to drive demand for sustainable aviation fuel

How can we solve this problem? How do we create the demand needed to boost supply? The answer is by joining forces with like-minded companies and organizations.

One example is the Clean Skies for Tomorrow Coalition (CST), led by the World Economic Forum (WEF). CST brings together stakeholders across and beyond the aviation value chain to align on a transition to SAF and ultimately achieve carbon-neutral flying. We’re a proud supporter of the coalition and signatory the CST’s 2030 Ambition Statement. One important project is developing a workable solution to create a voluntary market for SAF that will unlock new revenue and accelerate SAF production. In 2021, the WEF, in collaboration with PwC Netherlands and RMI, released a white paper introducing a “sustainable aviation fuel certificate” (also “SAF certificate” or “SAFc”) as such a solution, which could be used with a ‘book and claim’ system to facilitate the purchase of SAF. It’s proving to be a game changer.

That year, we joined United Airlines’ Eco-Skies Alliance to test the SAFc concept. In early 2022, we started a three-year cooperation with Air France KLM Martinair Cargo to purchase 33 million liters of sustainable aviation fuel and announced one of the largest SAF deals to date: a collaboration with bp and Neste to buy more than 800 million liters through 2026. In 2023, we partnered with IAG Cargo to order 11.5 million liters of SAF and announced a seven-year agreement with World Energy to purchase 668 million liters, marking more milestones on our journey toward sustainable air freight.

As mentioned above, we have to work together across the aviation value chain to make this model a real game changer. Together with our partners, we’re purchasing the SAF available now and placing orders for more – orders that suppliers don’t even have the capacity yet to fill. Why are we doing this? Because it’s the only way to stimulate the changes needed to create an SAF marketplace – to drive up the demand for and, in turn, the supply of sustainable aviation fuel.

For example, the United Airlines’ Eco-Skies Alliance was a first-of-its-kind program to reduce our environmental impact while helping United make flying more sustainable. In 2021, the  alliance purchased the environmental benefits of 3.4 million gallons (12.87 million liters) of SAF. That eliminated about 31,000 metric tons of GHG emissions over the lifecycle, compared to the use of conventional jet fuel.

And that was just the start. With bp and Neste alone, we will save approx. 2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂e) over the aviation fuel lifecycle. With that amount, we could fuel 1,000 flights per year between our Cincinnati (USA) and Leipzig (Germany) hubs for about 12 years! And together with World Energy, we will avoid approx. 1.9 million metric tons of CO₂e over the lifecycle. That’s equivalent to a fully loaded Boeing 744 jumbo air freighter circumnavigating the globe 3,700 times!

How do we share the benefits with our customers? By using the ‘book and claim’ system mentioned above. For example, both our DHL Global Forwarding and DHL Express divisions offer GoGreen Plus. This allows customers to claim the environmental benefits associated SAF and reduce their carbon footprint.