Scandinavian sustainability

ERA member SAS External Production is the wet leasing production arm of SAS, the largest airline in Scandinavia. SAS fully supports IATA’s vision that by 2050 it will be possible to fly commercially without climate impact. We hear from Lars Andersen Resare, Head of Sustainability at SAS, to find out how the airline is supporting this.

At SAS, we believe IATA’s climate vision is to be realised through a combination of new technology, more efficient air traffic management, new fuels and co-ordinated actions to improve the infrastructure and the conditions under which air transport operates.

Related to sustainability, reducing emissions is our first priority. To actively address this, we have set targets to reduce total CO₂ emissions by 25 per cent and to use biofuel on traffic equivalent to our total domestic production by 2030.

A combination of initiatives

To reach our targets, we work to reduce emissions throughout our entire value chain. Our roadmap is comprised of major and minor initiatives and improvements. Clearly, the renewal of our fleet to modern aircraft, thereby reducing emissions up to 18 per cent, is a major initiative and investment in the future.

Further, our biofuel collaboration with Preem is an important step to ensure production of bio-based jet fuel to secure carbon neutrality on our domestic production.

In addition to our major improvement initiatives, we are also working on smaller but important improvements. For example, we are changing the interiors of our aircraft to lightweight materials and have introduced pre-ordering of breakfasts in our economy GO cabin. These minor, but important, initiatives help reduce both waste and weight. As a result, our aircraft consume less fuel and this thereby reduces our environmental footprint.

Until it is technically possible to conduct climate-neutral flying, we want to limit the impact of CO₂ emissions. For emissions that cannot be eliminated, SAS is part of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), which is a cornerstone of the EU’s policy to combat climate change and is its key tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Last year, our President and CEO Rickard Gustafson additionally joined other Nordic CEOs for a Sustainable Future platform, enabling SAS to share knowledge and co-operate with like-minded corporate partners on sustainable business strategies. It also enables us to engage with Nordic Prime Ministers on sustainability topics and will help us to fulfil our commitments to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

Carbon offsetting

Moreover, we continue our own carbon offsetting activities. Starting last year, we began offsetting our carbon footprint on all youth tickets as well as staff journeys. From the beginning of February, we are also carbon offsetting all tickets booked with an attached EuroBonus number.

At SAS, we continuously work to minimise the environmental impact of our flight operations. We share our customers’ desire for more sustainable travel, and we are strongly committed to enhancing the sustainability of our operations and to reducing our carbon footprint.

Going forward, we want Scandinavian companies to continue to have access to global markets, and people to have the freedom to continue to explore and enjoy new countries, places and cultures. But to make this happen, we must push for a more sustainable aviation industry.

Sustainability highlights – FY2018

• Total tonne kilometre decreased 0.2 per cent and total CO₂ emissions decreased 1.4 per cent.
• Relative passenger-related CO₂ emissions decreased during the period to 95 grams per passenger kilometre.
• Relative cargo related CO₂ emissions increased during the period to 521 grams per cargo tonne kilometre.
• Order placed of an additional 50 (in addition to the 30 previously ordered) fuel efficient Airbus 320neo.
• 100 tonnes of renewable jet fuel used.