Shipping company Hecksher launches SAF certificates for air freight
- Hecksher
- Sep 30
- 2 min read
As part of its growing sustainability efforts, global shipping company Hecksher is implementing a new way for companies to address the climate impact of air freight: sustainable aviation fuel certificates (SAFc).
SAFc is an established market-based mechanism decoupling the environmental attribute of SAF from the physical product through a book-and-claim system and has become an important tool to reduce the environmental impact of essential business travel and air freight.
SAF is made from certified sustainable feedstocks, such as used cooking oil and other residual waste materials.
It has emerged as a trusted solution to decarbonize the aviation industry as it can reduce lifecycle-CO2e emissions by up to 80 percent.
“We’ve already taken significant steps to reduce emissions in sea freight,” said Niklas Olsson, group CEO of Hecksher. “Purchasing SAFc for air freight supports the replacement of fossil kerosene and offers a readily implementable, transparent and scalable solution for corporates looking to address their scope 3 emissions without having to change carriers, routes or operational setup.”
How it works
Hecksher calculates the customer’s air-freight emissions.
The customer selects an amount of SAFc matching all or part of their emissions.
The SAFc represents a volume of physical SAF used to replace kerosene in commercial operations. Via book and claim, Hecksher owns the exclusive rights to the end-user emission reduction, which is recorded on the SAFc registry.
The SAFc registry publicly records all claimed emission reductions and only allows the issuance of SAFc where the physical SAF meets stringent quality controls such as third-party verification, therefore assuring full transparency and avoiding double issuance/ claiming.
The customer receives a digital certificate that includes all the characteristics of the SAFc supporting the environmental claim.
“We have found a cost-effective solution that allows us to offer SAF at purchase price,” said Patrik Westraeus, the head of sustainability at Greencarrier Group, which includes Hecksher. “This means our customers can buy SAF at a lower cost compared to several other providers.”
The SAFc initiative is delivered in partnership with environmental-commodities trader STX Group.
“We congratulate Hecksher and Greencarrier on taking this important step by implementing SAFc,” said Fabian Roobeek, the managing partner at STX Group. “It’s encouraging to see the shift toward renewable fuels and at STX we are proud to support such pioneers by providing market access and liquidity in SAFc.”
