This week employees from across the Singapore Airlines Group (SIA Group) will participate in a three-day global learning festival. The festival is themed around sustainability and is part of the airline group's commitment to fostering a learning culture within the organization.
The biennial Learning and Innovation for Everyone (LIFE) festival will run globally from March 21st to 23rd, with more than 50 activities crammed into the three days. SIA Group, which includes Singapore Airlines and Scoot, wants the festival to reinforce the importance of its long-term sustainability goals.
Three pillars of sustainability
The airline's sustainability goals incorporate three key pillars - achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, reducing waste across its operations and making a positive impact on society. SIA says the LIFE festival will focus on "the drivers and challenges that lie ahead in achieving the Group's 2050 net zero carbon emissions target and building workforce sustainability."
Singapore Airlines has been working on sustainability issues for more than a decade and has been an active Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group member since 2011. Since 2019 it has participated in the ICAO Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), and in May 2021, it announced its commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
To help achieve that goal, LIFE 2023 will include topics such as the future of flight, steward leadership, biodiversity protection and how technology can mitigate sustainability issues. According to SIA senior vice president human resources Vanessa Ng, staff development and continuous learning is a cornerstone of the SIA Group's corporate philosophy. She said:
"Through our signature biennale learning festival, we get the opportunity to engage our people globally on our present and critical agenda. With sustainability as the key theme for this year's learning festival, we seek to inspire our people to think about how they can play a role in supporting our sustainability goals and actions."
New aircraft is the direct way to net zero
To reach the net zero by 2050 target, SIA said it would focus on new generation aircraft, higher operational efficiency, using low carbon technology such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and sourcing high-quality carbon offsets. The airline believes that operating new-generation aircraft is the most effective and direct way for airlines to reduce their carbon emissions.
The group says it has one of the youngest fleets in the world, with an average age of six years and eight months, compared to the global average of more than 15 years. It is based around modern aircraft, including the A350 and A320 family from Airbus and the 787 Dreamliners and 737 MAX 8s from Boeing, which offer up to 25% fuel efficiency over previous generation aircraft.
SIA Group has been one of Asia's first movers on SAF and sees the fuel as a critical lever in the success of its long-term decarbonization strategy. In 2021 it partnered with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, Temasek, Changi Airport Group and other stakeholders to study and deploy SAF in Singapore. In July last year, blended SAF was delivered to Changi Airport via the airport's fuel hydrant system and uplifted onto departing SIA and Scoot flights.
The path to net zero emission aviation is neither easy nor quick, but if more airlines followed the learnings and journey of Singapore Airlines, they might get there sooner.
What do you think of SIA's approach? Let us know in the comments.