6 November 2024

GreenAir News

Reporting on aviation and the environment

Boston Consulting Group and SkyNRG enter long-term SAF purchase agreement for corporate travel

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has announced an eight-year partnership with SkyNRG to purchase sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for its business travel flights starting in 2022, so becoming the newest member of SkyNRG’s Board Now corporate programme. The move is in support of BCG’s commitment to achieving net zero climate impact by 2030 at the latest, with more than 80% of the organisation’s carbon footprint attributable to business travel. SkyNRG says the long-term agreement will support the development of a new SAF production facility in the Netherlands, which will produce 100,000 tonnes of SAF annually from sustainable sources such as waste oils when it eventually comes onstream, with BCG committing to purchasing existing supplies in the meantime. BCG joins Microsoft, SkyScanner, PwC and others as Board Now programme Leader – the highest membership level. It also recently joined the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA) as a founding member.

“Lower-carbon air travel is a vital part of achieving our net zero goal, as well as the global climate targets. This partnership with SkyNRG will help to develop the global market for more affordable sustainable aviation fuel,” said Rich Lesser, CEO of BCG.

Both BCG and SkyNRG have participated in the World Economic Forum-led Clean Skies for Tomorrow (CST) coalition since 2019. SkyNRG is also part of WEF’s SAF Certificate (SAFc) pilot, which is aiming to develop a globally recognised accounting system for SAF (see article).

“It is great to see that BCG is at the forefront of making the aviation industry more sustainable as a member of our Board Now SAF programme,” said SkyNRG Managing Director Theye Veen. “With this long-term partnership, BCG enables the acceleration of the sustainable aviation industry, bringing us one step closer to making SAF the global standard in aviation.”

In June, BCG entered into an agreement with Neste for the purchase of SAF to be delivered to airlines SAS and Finnair, covering the volume of all flights taken by BCG employees in the Nordic region with these carriers. BCG is Neste’s first corporate client for its SAF-based solution in which Neste and its airline partners help organisations reach their emission reduction targets, and includes a third-party audit process to ensure other customers cannot claim emission reductions on the same SAF volume.

“The core value proposition of BCG is to connect our clients with the best global expertise and talent, whatever the business issue at hand might be. Next generation ways of working have opened up tremendous opportunities to accomplish this virtually. Yet some travel will be needed going forward in order to deliver the greatest value to our clients,” said Tuukka Seppä, Managing Partner of BCG Nordics. “This move is part of BCG’s global efforts to advance the path to lower-carbon travel and is an important step on our journey to net zero climate impact by 2030.”

BCG is the Consultancy Partner for the COP26 climate conference in November and has expanded its climate and sustainability capabilities by transforming its former Center for Climate Action into a global BCG Center for Climate & Sustainability, which brings together over 550 experts from across the firm.

In other SkyNRG news, the company is to partner with Dutch festival brand DGTL that will ensure all artists travelling to and from its international events by air will have their flight CO2 emissions reduced through SAF purchase.

“Working with SkyNRG, DGTL’s sustainability model once again provides a groundbreaking blueprint for other promoters and large-scale event organisers,” said DGTL, which claims to have solved other event sustainability issues around energy, water and sanitation. “This innovation is the final piece in DGTL’s overall sustainability puzzle. Furthermore, it is a scalable solution that can reduce air travel emissions for other events too where air travel may be unavoidable. DGTL’s festivals have a huge reach, which is why it is important we lead by example and plant the seed for change.”