Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance announces collective purchase of SAF certificates

For the first time, companies including Bank of America, Boom Supersonic, Boston Consulting Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Meta and clean energy nonprofit RMI are joining together through the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance to purchase sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) certificates at scale.

This leap forward from previous individual SAF-certificate purchases by corporations dramatically strengthens the demand signal aviation customers are sending to the SAF market.

SAF is a drop-in fuel made with renewable or waste feedstocks that can significantly reduce the carbon pollution from flight.

Currently, SAF makes up less than 0.1 percent of global jet-fuel supply and sells at a significant premium to fossil jet fuel.

The SAF involved in the SABA transaction is produced by World Energy and reduces lifecycle-carbon emissions by 84 percent compared to conventional jet fuel.

SABA members are purchasing SAF certificates linked to 850,000 gallons of this high-integrity SAF, which is being used to fuel JetBlue flights this year.

“SAF is the most meaningful way we have to decarbonize the aviation industry, but it will take many stakeholders working together to bring the supply and cost of SAF where we need to meet our net zero goals,” said Sara Bogdan, director of sustainability and ESG at JetBlue. “We’re incredibly proud of the SAF commitments we’ve already made as an organization, but the collaboration and investment by businesses like those within SABA are what will supercharge our transition to SAF by allowing us to increase our offtake while also supporting those businesses’ own sustainability goals.”

Adam Klauber, vice president of sustainability and ESG at World Energy, added, “World Energy is honored to be the fuel producer for SABA’s first aggregated SAF purchase. At this pivotal moment SABA plays an important role in addressing aircraft emissions by cultivating trust in SAF and making corporate actions to decarbonize aviation possible.”

The competitive-procurement process that led to this purchase, open to major U.S. and international air carriers, required proposals demonstrate that fuel met key sustainability criteria, in alignment with SABA’s goal of scaling the market for high-integrity SAF.

ENGIE Impact, a global consultancy specializing in sustainability transformation, provided expert support in managing the process and the final selection of the winning bid.

Corporations purchasing SAF certificates pay some or all of the premium associated with SAF, pursuing decarbonization efforts that directly reduce emissions in the aviation sector.

In addition, SAF certificates provide the nascent market with:

• Standardization and transparency for accounting and reporting certified greenhouse-gas (GHG) reductions

• Essential funding to increase purchases of SAF

• A demand signal for fuel producers to make more high-integrity SAF, which in turn influences the cost-competitiveness of SAF with conventional jet fuel

SABA, whose membership comprises several of the most ubiquitous names in corporate travel, was formed by the Environmental Defense Fund and RMI to accelerate the path to net-zero aviation by building the system needed to credibly scale investment in and adoption of SAF.

Following the successful completion of this first joint procurement, SABA is launching its second competitive-procurement process where it seeks to procure SAF certificates across a five-year timeframe.

This second process will be open to all airlines and fuel providers.

SABA expects to increase its annual collective demand by more than 10 times compared to this first process.

SABA members will also be piloting a new registry to bring more transparency, consistency and integrity to the emerging SAF-certificate market.

Building trust in the certificate system is crucial to convincing more companies to purchase SAF certificates.