4AIR and CADO to collaborate on harmonising their respective SAF registries

Aviation sustainability firm 4AIR is to collaborate with the Civil Aviation Decarbonization Organization (CADO) on their respective sustainable aviation fuel registries. The key focus, say the partners, will be to enhance data integrity, mitigate double issuance risks and facilitate efficient cross-registry SAF certificate handling between commercial and business aviation. 4AIR has developed the Assure SAF Registry as a blockchain-based management platform for business aviation, with the aim of accelerating the adoption of SAF in the sector. The platform enables auditable and traceable documentation of environmental attributes from physical and book-and-claim transactions. The CADO SAF Registry was developed by IATA and launched in March 2025, and is now owned and operated by Montreal-based non-profit CADO, with IATA continuing to provide ongoing technical and operational support.

“A unified approach from both business and commercial aviation is vital to create an environment that promotes SAF development and adoption across sectors,” explained Michael Schneider, Executive Director of CADO. “This can only be achieved when all registry providers work together and cooperate on the technical aspects of interoperability, to ensure immutable tracking of emission reductions in a harmonised and standardised way.

“This should lead to greater acceptance and demand for SAF, potentially lowering the costs and administrative burden for procuring SAF and claiming its environmental attributes under voluntary or regulatory schemes.”

The CADO SAF Registry was developed in consultation with airlines, government authorities, OEMs, fuel producers and suppliers, and corporate travel management companies. The global system, which is underpinned by the IATA SAF Accounting and Reporting Methodology, records SAF transactions in a standardised and transparent way to ensure the environmental benefits of SAF can be tracked as they move across the SAF value chain.

CADO says its registry is technology and feedstock neutral to enable the emergence of diverse SAF production streams across the world and will be able to accommodate specific regulations, while “favouring global harmonisation”. It reports over 35 early users are already in the process of joining the registry, with participation free of charge until April 2027, after which time it will be operated on a cost recovery basis.

4AIR’s Assure SAF Registry was launched in May 2023 and the company recently announced a milestone of 10 million blended gallons of SAF had been registered on the platform.

Commenting on the new partnership with CADO, 4AIR President Kennedy Ricci said: “Collaboration can leverage the strengths of each sector to tackle the challenge of decarbonising the aviation industry more effectively. Alignment between commercial and business aviation sends a strong demand signal for more SAF, creates greater transparency, reduces integrity risks for the SAF value chain and eases the burden of claiming SAF under voluntary or regulatory schemes.”

The tie-up with 4AIR follows a similar move by IATA, prior to the setting up of CADO, when the airline industry body announced a collaboration with 123Carbon in February to build interoperability between their respective SAF registries. The collaboration was to focus on developing a unique identifier and alignment of the relevant data points to exchange between registries; a process for the exchange of information to avoid any potential double issuance; and a dispute resolution process.

With over 50 global users, 123Carbon claims to be the first independent platform for carbon insetting across all transport modes, supporting fuel suppliers, fleet operators, forwarders and cargo owners in the issuance, management and transfer of Environmental Attribute Certificates across all modalities and all technologies, including SAF.

Photo: Flexjet

Editor’s note: SAF registries and their importance will be discussed in a session at Aviation Carbon 2025 in November.

Christopher Surgenor

Editor

• Linkedin