A Sustainable Future
There’s strength in togetherness. That’s why our member airlines are working side-by-side to share knowledge and best practices to reduce air travel’s impact on the environment. We’re passionate about doing more to reduce our carbon emissions and protect the world we connect.
Aiming High
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) provide a blueprint for a better future for everyone. SkyTeam and its members are basing their efforts on six of the UNSDGs that we have selected to guide our mission to reduce our impact.
Gender equality
Affordable and clean energy
Decent work and economic growth
Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Responsible consumption and production
Climate action
Our sustainability standards
Nine sustainability standards are guiding SkyTeam’s path to offering the most seamless and responsible travel experience of any global airline alliance. The Aviation Challenge is just one of our many initiatives that are making meaningful contributions to a more sustainable operating model.
Marking a first step towards setting an alliance-wide shared sustainability ambition, the primary goal of the standards is to support member airlines in making a positive impact. Our focus areas land within three pillars and are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). In the future, we envision these sustainability standards becoming a minimum membership requirement for airlines wanting to join SkyTeam.
Employee welfare & equality
Being a great, safe place to work contributes to the health and wellbeing of our people, which comes full circle in the excellent service they deliver to our customers. We embrace diversity, equity and inclusion at all levels across our organizations – for example, by becoming the first global alliance to sign up to IATA’s 25by2025 to help close the gender gap in aviation.
Track and improve employee satisfaction
By using tools such as the Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), we can keep track of our employees’ wellbeing and overall satisfaction, and how likely they would be to recommend their workplace to others.
Increase women in senior positions (IATA 25by2025)
We have unanimously signed up to IATA 25by2025, a global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) initiative that is helping to create a greater gender balance in the aviation industry by increasing the percentage of women in senior positions and under-represented areas.
Operating footprint
We’re working to minimize our footprint by reducing the environmental impact of our operations. This includes plans to reduce the amount of airline waste going to landfill and saying no to unethical cargo. We’re taking stakeholders who share our vision on our journey, including customers and suppliers.
Waste reduction
We’re working across our operations, from catering and engineering to cargo and on-board services, to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and incineration, helping to further reduce our carbon footprint.
More sustainable supply chains
We are responsible for ensuring suppliers align with our sustainability journey, so we’re working to implement Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards and certification across our supply chains. As part of this process, SkyTeam and our member airlines are also improving how we measure and report our own ESG performance.
More sustainable supply chains
To protect endangered plants and wildlife and help stop the trade in non-responsibly sourced gems and precious metals, we are taking measures to ensure the cargo we carry across our network is ethical.
Energy and climate action
Together with our members, we’re charting a flight path towards net-zero emissions by 2050. This includes rolling out innovations to improve operational efficiency and making longer-term commitments for the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). To support ground operations, we’re increasing our use of clean energy sources, such as harnessing renewable power at our facilities and electrification of ground support vehicles.
Low emissions ground support equipment (GSE)
Using electric and low carbon fueled GSE, such as baggage tractors, belt loaders, ground power units and push back tugs, will help reduce the overall footprint of ground operations at our hubs.
Renewable energy at airline facilities
We’re seeking more sustainable alternatives for lighting, heating and air-conditioning, working towards increased use of renewable energy sources at our facilities.
Reducing emissions intensity
In many ways, this is our key standard, as it measures our carbon emissions per flight. Operational efficiency improvements - like reducing aircraft weight and flying optimized routes - help us reduce the amount of fuel consumed in our daily flight operations and help lower our overall emissions intensity.
Adoption of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)
Using SAF instead of fossil-based jet fuel will have the biggest impact on reducing aviation’s CO2 emissions in the short to medium term. We’re committed to powering more of our operations with sustainable fuel sources that have a lower lifecycle carbon footprint than conventional fuel.
RISE: Creating female leaders of the future
We are proud to be the first airline alliance whose members’ CEOs unanimously signed up to IATA’s 25by2025 initiative to help close aviation’s gender gap. To strengthen this commitment, SkyTeam created the RISE Women's Leadership Development Program to help women soar at our member airlines, each of whom nominates female candidates to participate each year. RISE (Reach, Inspire, Soar, Empower) brings together female talent to create an international network of women through collaborative projects and engagement.
The annual program comprises several high-quality training elements aimed at enhancing skills in leadership, communication, network-building, personal branding, and media presence.
Sustainability initiatives by SkyTeam members
Below you will find links to each member’s website where you can learn about their sustainability initiatives and commitment to creating a more sustainable future for aviation.
Sustainability in Action
SkyTeam members are committed to making changes and investments to help them fly more sustainably. Here are some of latest stories about the work they are doing to reshape the future of air travel.
Kenya Airways Joins Forces with IATA to Pilot the New Integrated Sustainability Program (ISP)
KLM Catering Services is the first airline caterer to introduce 100% electric catering trucks
TAROM and OMV Petrom have signed a contract for the supply of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)
