Throughout the world, companies are employing ESG strategies to enhance their businesses.
Originally used as a philosophy for finance and investing, ESG – or environmental, social and governance – initiatives have expanded into a structure that evaluates a company’s business practices.
Among other goals, ESG programs aim to enhance sustainability practices, create positive working environments with employees, customers and communities, and guide corporate governance procedures.
With lofty environmental targets on the horizon and safety as a top priority, the aviation industry – including the ground support equipment and ground handling markets – is taking action to employ ESG programs in various ways.
A key environmental initiative in aviation is decarbonizing operations. Neste, a producer of sustainable fuels and renewable feedstock solutions, has embarked on decarbonization efforts in three specific areas.
Through various initiatives, Neste is working to increase the availability and accessibility of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF); offer solutions like renewable diesel fuel for ground support equipment (GSE) and other ground handling operations; and assist in the recycling of waste materials to create more sustainable fuels.
Neste has been producing SAF since 2011 when hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA-SAF) received approval for use as jet fuel.
“We are now serving more than 70 direct customers across the aviation supply chain and in 21 countries. Neste is increasing its SAF production capability as we speak,” points out Carrie Song, commercial operations lead of Neste’s renewable product business. “Today, Neste has an annual SAF production capability of 365 million gallons of SAF and will support market demand with 515 million gallons of SAF later this year.”
Renewable diesel, made from 100-percent renewable raw materials like used cooking oil or animal fat, can decarbonize ground operations and be used to fuel GSE, ground transportation vehicles and other equipment at airports.
“In the U.S., Neste collects used cooking oil from over 80,000 locations via our subsidiaries. This is then converted into renewable fuel at one of Neste’s refineries, which our customers use to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,” Song says. “We are committed to helping our customers reduce their GHG emissions by 20 million tons per year by 2030. In 2022, our products helped customers reduce over 11.1 million tons of GHG emissions.”
New low- and zero-emission technologies make it possible to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, low carbon transportation system, according to Song. Solutions like vehicle electrification, renewable fuels and hydrogen cells also are emerging, and Song says all solutions are needed to help transition away from fossil fuels quicker.
“The simple truth is that there is no silver bullet for kicking the fossil fuel habit, because what works for one type of transportation will not work for another,” Song says. “Aircraft shrink the world so we can get from point A to point B in hours instead of days but depend on fossil jet fuel. Neste believes there are actions we can take now to make transportation more sustainable, so we developed solutions like renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel to help industry partners take action today.”
However, a lack of awareness, limited access and availability, and insufficient government policy support has hindered the adoption of renewable fuels.
“Renewable diesel and SAF were not really well-known when they were first introduced to the market. So Neste continues working hard on explaining and demonstrating their benefits to customers, industry experts, government officials and the general public to enable them to become the customer’s choice,” Song says.
Policies like Europe’s ReFuelEU regulation and the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) in the U.S. have spurred production. However, even with IATA’s projection of 8 billion gallons of annual SAF production by 2030, SAF will only equal 10 percent of total jet fuel demand. That’s up from 0.1 percent today, but is still not enough to meet the industry’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, Song warns.
“Neste has an annual SAF production capability of 365 million gallons of SAF and will support market demand with 515 million gallons of SAF later this year. Ongoing investments will further increase our SAF production capability to 750 million gallons (2.2 million tons) in 2026,” Song says.
“We also work hard with infrastructure owners to ensure our renewable fuels can be easily transported using existing (gray) infrastructure,” Song continues. “A most recent example is that we partnered with Vopak, an international energy infrastructure company, to convert 22 of their tanks in Los Angeles that used to store fossil fuels into storage facilities that will be used to store Neste’s renewable fuels. Altogether, the combined capacity of these tanks reach 39 million U.S. gallons. This means better availability and quicker accessibility of SAF for airlines at LAX and surrounding airports using existing infrastructures.”
Neste officials say they will continue to ramp up production of renewable diesel and SAF to support their customers' ESG goals.
They will also focus on developing new raw material sources, so in the future, renewable products can be made from forestry and harvesting waste (also known as lignocellulosic waste), municipal solid waste and algae, and by using new technologies like e-fuels.
“At the moment, 40 percent of the motorized equipment at the airport runs on electricity. And that number will increase over the coming years. However, for a number of specialist heavy vehicles, it is a technical challenge to develop a battery with sufficient capacity that can also be charged quickly enough. Using Neste MY Renewable Diesel is therefore a good solution currently,” says Paul Feldbrugge, who is responsible for the Zero Emission Program within KLM Equipment Services.
“The use of renewable fuel is another important building block and a very important addition to our concept for climate-friendly mobility,” adds Thilo Schmid, CEO of Cologne Bonn Airport GmbH. “For some vehicles, diesel propulsion is still the necessary standard, e.g. for the very large and heavy vehicles used by the airport’s fire department. For these, Neste MY Renewable Diesel is a solution enabling immediate decarbonization.”
Song says renewable solutions are key levers in helping hard-to-abate sectors reduce reliance on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions.
While more stakeholders are contributing to the development of renewable fuels and solutions, Song says it is important to take climate action immediately.
“Climate change is the No. 1 pressing issue our society is facing. It is changing the way we live and how we do business,” Song says. “To thrive tomorrow, businesses need to transform and operate in a more sustainable way today, and this is also what customers, investors, employees and the general public expects.”
