ALASKA AIRLINES

Sustainability Overview

In April 2022, Alaska Airlines celebrated its 90th anniversary, a remarkable achievement by any measure. However, its eyes are firmly set on navigating the next 90 years, with sustainability set to be a key part of those plans.

It is worth noting that Alaska is one of the few airlines that have committed to reaching net-zero before 2050. In fact, their five-part plan – released in 2021 – outlines how the airline plans to get there as soon as 2040.

That’s not all. They have outlined short-term plans until 2025 as well. These include focusing on improving operational efficiency with procedures and technology that minimise fuel burn. For example, by implementing route optimisation software Flyways; taking delivery of new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft; improving use of electric ground power and air and continuing to evolve the ground fleet toward lower-emissions options. Last but not least, the airline is aggressively investing in developing and procuring SAF.

Meet The Changemaker

Diana Birkett Rakow is Senior Vice President, Public Affairs & Sustainability at Alaska Airlines. She is a senior ESG and public affairs executive and Board Director with over two decades’ experience across multiple industries and private, not-for-profit, and government sectors.

Diana’s approach to sustainability is people and process-oriented.

“People keep me motivated and inspired”, she says. “Especially those in the organisation who are improving processes to save fuel or be more efficient, and who reach out with ideas about recycling or waste management.

Years ago, our flight attendants designed and implemented our onboard recycling programme – and more recently, our dispatchers worked with software developers from Airspace Intelligence to develop new route optimization called Flyways which dispatchers can use to support their development of flight paths that save fuel, time, and emissions.”

The biggest lesson for Diana is the critical need for partnership and collaboration – on all fronts, inside and beyond Alaska Airlines. She says sustainability involves work that cannot live in a silo, and no one organisation has all the answers.

Inside Alaska, this means sharing responsibility for progress with teams and colleagues across the company. For example, working with the supply chain to navigate the diverse market for SAF; with the food and beverage team to evaluate products to replace single-use plastic; with the airport teams to make the ground vehicle fleet increasingly electric; and more. Starting last year, the airline also added a carbon intensity goal to the employee performance pay programme to embed this drive for sustainability in their culture.

Source: Alaska Airlines

Opportunities And Challenges

Diana recognises that aviation is a complex and ever-changing industry. “In the last few years, especially, the industry has faced concurrent crises: health and safety through the Covid-19 pandemic; the economic viability of the industry; and the imperative to preserve jobs when demand went to nothing, more deeply understanding the continued impact of racism in our country, working to advance equity and ensure that all employees feel they belong, and the tragedy of war in Ukraine and its human and global impacts”, she details. Diana says the challenge is to at once hold, navigate, and address these and the drive to improve Alaska’s climate impact.

Alaska Airlines has a long-term goal of reaching net zero by 2040, and a five-part path to get there: operational efficiency, fleet renewal, sustainable aviation fuels, electrified or hybrid aircraft propulsion, and credible carbon offsets only as needed to close any remaining gaps to their target.

Diana says that the airline continues to work on all five fronts but knows that making SAF available at a commercially viable price and scale can have the greatest impact on decarbonising aviation in the next two decades. “SAF is safe and easy to use in aviation because it is certified as a “drop-in” fuel meaning it can be added to the broader jet fuel supply, and it can reduce the lifecycle carbon emissions impact of fuel by up to 80% or more”, she explains.

However, Diana admits that scaling supply and making it commercially viable at scale requires both public policy and private action. For example, even though Alaska Airlines has been using SAF since they started demonstration flights in 2011, the amount of SAF available today is still less than 1% of total fuel demand.

Looking Ahead

Diana believes reaching aviation’s net-zero goals will require public policy and private market action.

That is why Alaska is doing its part by developing agreements to purchase and use SAF from a diversity of suppliers; working with partners like SkyNRG and Twelve to support their paths to produce new sources of supply; collaborating to develop book-and-claim methodologies to share in the benefits of SAF; and engaging corporate customer partners to help address the near-term financial hurdle of investing in these fuels and kick-start the market.

In addition, Alaska not only collaborates across the industry, including with global Oneworld alliance partners, but has created a diversity of partnerships such as with SAF producers mentioned above; science advisory firm Carbon Direct; Microsoft; Boeing; and Washington State University.

Alaska has also, very successfully, managed to engage and recruit customers into flying more sustainably. For instance, in November 2021, Alaska Airlines switched to 100% boxed water. According to the airline, the boxed water is packaged in recyclable, 92% plant material sourced from sustainably harvested trees. Even the resealable cap comes from leftover materials in the paper-making process. Furthermore, pivoting to boxed water is expected to eliminate 1.8 million pounds of plastic waste.

“The level of continued learning and innovation happening in aviation specifically and clean tech more broadly is truly incredible,” Diana marvels. Last year, Alaska Airlines established Alaska Star Ventures, a venture arm to scale access to this innovation and identify and enable technologies that can accelerate the airline’s path to net zero. “We’re proud to have made initial investments in two venture funds, The Westly Group and UP.Partners, focused on clean energy and advanced air mobility respectively. And in ZeroAvia who are working to develop a hydrogen-electric powertrain that could retrofit regional aircraft to future zero-emissions propulsion.”

Dhanushka De Silva

Former Environmental Affairs & Sustainability Manager at SriLankan