JETBLUE

Sustainability Overview

JetBlue plans to achieve net zero emissions earlier than most airlines in the world: by 2040. Counter-intuitively, most of JetBlue’s recent sustainability efforts – including the 2040 target – were thought out during the lull of the COVID-19 shutdown, when business was hurting and planes were grounded.

To get to net zero, the airline has committed to several short- and medium-term targets including reduction in aircraft emissions 25 percent per available seat mile (ASM) by 2030 from 2015 levels; 10 percent of total jet fuel to be from blended SAF by 2030; 40 percent of three main ground service equipment vehicle types to electric by 2025 and 50 percent by 2030; eliminate single-use plastics within service where possible; where not possible, ensure plastic is recyclable; and maintain at least an 80 percent recycling rate for audited domestic flights.

Meet The Changemaker

Sara Bogdan is Director, Head of Sustainability and ESG at JetBlue Airways. She manages a series of operational sustainability programmes that “better prepare the organisation for a changing and resource-constrained world”. This includes the execution of JetBlue being the first US airline to achieve regular carbon-neutral flying for all domestic flights via carbon offsets, investments in sustainable aviation fuel, and increasingly fuel-efficient operations.

Sara admits that the challenges of the last several years would have made it easy for JetBlue to abandon their sustainability goals, but in fact adversity has only strengthened the airline’s commitment.

She offers two reasons for the passion that underpins her work – first, a deep concern for the climate. Her background is in climate change research, studying the vast impacts of a warming climate on wildlife. It is this work that inspired Sara to work in sustainability. “I felt so deeply concerned about the climate crisis that I wanted to dedicate my efforts to implementing meaningful, tangible, and quantifiable decarbonising initiatives”, she says.

The second is her love for the industry and her company. Sara believes that while the air travel industry provides a critical service to society, we urgently need to pursue all solutions to allow us to continue to do so – with significantly fewer emissions.

Opportunities And Challenges

For JetBlue, the global pandemic helped illuminate first-hand the vulnerability of the business to external risks, and actually sharpened the airline’s focus on sustainability and ESG. The work has only continued to grow in scope and ambition – JetBlue’s SAF commitments lead the aviation industry by percent of total fuel, and the airline continues to achieve per-seat emissions reductions as new fuel-efficient aircraft and flying procedures are introduced

According to Sara, the greatest challenge is simply a matter of physics – airplanes rely on liquid fuels, which are 99.9% fossil fuels. And while travel currently represents a small percentage of overall Greenhouse Gases (GHG), Sara admits it will become proportionately more impactful as other industries are able to accelerate sustainability efforts faster.

“For a “hard to decarbonise” industry like aviation it’s important to acknowledge that change for us will happen incrementally but are doing the work to make a meaningful impact in the short term with moves like investing in SAF, electrifying our ground service equipment, and optimising fuel use with efficient an efficient fleet, routings, and operations”, she says.

Sara points out that Instilling an internal culture with a focus on making sustainable decisions across the operation has been incredibly useful in delivering immediate results.

“We’re giving leaders across the operation the tools to understand the short- and long-term sustainability impacts of their decisions, along with business and financial impact, so they can make decisions that are not only best for the organisation but best for the planet”, she says.

Saf And Offsetting

JetBlue has long been on record with the view that SAF is the most promising solution currently available to help the industry reach its net zero goals. JetBlue works with its SAF partners — Neste and World Energy — to aggressively acquire and utilise SAF in its operations. Sara says that while the airline is proud to have been the first U.S. airline flying regularly on both

In November 2021, JetBlue announced it had joined Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA), a joint initiative with Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), and a forward-looking group of corporate travelers and U.S. airlines to help drive investment in high-integrity SAF.

Last year, JetBlue became the first airline to invest in Universal Hydrogen, an aerospace company working to decarbonize the global aviation industry through the adoption of zero-carbon emitting hydrogen as fuel commercially available SAF suppliers in the U.S, and has made significant commitments with other producers to continue to grow our SAF mix, challenges remain. It is no secret, after all, that there is still a very significant price premium for SAF.

However, Sara argues that much can be done from a policy standpoint, and while JetBlue continues to advocate for a SAF-specific blenders tax credit, that’s just one means of reducing the premium. The second is around economies of scale.

“As more and more airlines buy SAF, we’ll get to this space where there’s more supply, more economies of scale, and the price will come down”, she explains.

In addition, the airline has offsetting partnerships with CarbonFund, South Pole and EcoAct — to help ensure that they are investing in high-quality carbon credits. These partners help JetBlue identify a portfolio of diverse projects all over the world that are registered with a third-party, internationally recognized verification standard or standards verified by the UNFCCC.

Ultimately, even though JetBlue recognises that offsetting is not a long-term solution, they believe that offsets are an important short-term bridge to reducing environmental impact.

Planning And Partnerships

Sara says that partnerships will ultimately be the most pivotal in helping JetBlue reach their sustainability goals. “Whether it’s working with regulatory bodies and governments for policy support, joining consortiums like SABA or ACT to share best practices, or partnering with everyday businesses looking to manage their corporate travel emissions while encouraging the emerging SAF market, these partnerships require a lot of balancing priorities and mutual trust. Establishing those partnerships and aligning on goals takes effort – but we recognize we can be exponentially more effective as partners than attempting to change the world all on our own”, she says.

JetBlue also recently established the Sustainable Travel Partners program for corporate customers. It offers access to a suite of offerings to help reduce business travel emissions and meet their own corporate sustainability targets. Through the purchase of JetBlue SAF Certificates, corporate customers enable

JetBlue to expand its usage of SAF by helping cover the price premium between conventional and sustainable aviation fuel. This additional investment helps increase demand for SAF, creating a positive feedback loop for the emerging industry to produce more supply.

Looking Ahead

Sara’s ESG philosophy centres around continuous improvement, not perfection. “On day one, the best you can do is acknowledge a challenge”, she says. “Next, study and transparently report the current state. From there, set meaningful yet achievable targets. And then the really fun work begins – executing the solutions to improve.”

She says that throughout this process, honesty and transparency are key. Whether it is the airline’s crews using single-engine taxiing and getting onto GPUs quickly, or encouraging next-gen ATC systems to

Source: JetBlue website

“JetBlue is facing climate change head on and preparing our business for a new climate reality.”

– Sara Bogdan

improve routings, she believes that sharing and acknowledging limitations are a strength, not weakness.

“We don’t get there by telling people what we’re doing or by claiming perfection from the start, but by helping lead everyone to do the work along with us”, says Sara.

In fact, such transparency helps the organisation find immediate opportunities to make an impact while showing what’s possible when everyone works together.

Last but not least, JetBlue Airways’ investments in early-stage companies through its JetBlue Ventures division reflect its willingness to commit financial resources to a wide range of eco-conscious enterprises. Recently adding its 41st company to its portfolio of investments, JetBlue’s venture capital arm doesn’t limit its financial interest to technology companies. But a commitment to sustainability remains at its core, as evidenced by its stakes in companies such as eVTOL developer Joby, Universal Hydrogen, and, most recently, battery pack developer Electric Power Systems.

For me, sustainability is a state of mind, a lifestyle, an area in which I continue to learn from, admire and develop a deeper passion and connection to. The key to understanding the future can be narrowed down to one word: Sustainability.

Yaser Farhood