2020
Environment
We have taken our first steps towards defining our climate strategy and developing a plan to address our direct emissions.
We are acutely conscious of the growing impact that aviation has on global carbon emissions, contributing in the region of 2% per annum. As the aviation industry grows in the coming years we feel that we can take a proactive role in reducing the impact of that growth by ensuring airlines use the most efficient aircraft.
We recognise that climate change is a long-term issue and that businesses who plan for and address long-term risks while demonstrating a positive impact over a sustained period will be more appealing to customers, employees, shareholders and investors in the future.
The aviation industry will need to adapt to address climate change which will create both opportunities and risks for our business. Several of the world’s largest airlines have announced ambitious decarbonisation plans and SMBC Aviation Capital is committed to being part of the solution.
We believe the financial solutions we provide, play an important role in helping airlines reduce their emissions through the leasing and financing of the most technologically advanced and fuel efficient aircraft on the market.
Setting a baseline
Over the past year, we have taken our first steps towards defining our climate strategy and developing a plan to address our direct emissions. We have undertaken a carbon audit with Co2 Logic, an accredited carbon auditing and certifying company which develops low carbon transition plans for multinational companies across different sectors.
We are committed to going further and engaging with more climate action partners that help us reduce our energy usage and carbon consumption over the longer term.
Putting climate governance mechanisms in place
We also assembled a team from across the company to agree the steps we will take as a business and assess the material climate opportunities and risks. As a group we met with interest groups and potential climate action partners, as well as our shareholders, airlines, OEMs and regulators to explore how we can best engage in the area of climate action and develop a strategy that will have the most positive impact. This team has been given the responsibility to develop our climate action strategy over the coming year and reports directly to our head of strategic and market analysis, Shane Matthews and our CEO, Peter Barrett.
Launching emissions reduction programmes
Some first steps that we have taken to reduce our impact and our emissions include;
- Introducing reusable cups for staff which will save on average 72,000 single use compostable cups that had been used annually in our Dublin office
- Our Dublin office is powered by a renewable/green energy supplier
- Use of low energy led timed lighting across our offices
- Move to digital annual report
- Introduction of Microsoft Surface laptops to replace standard desktops means a reduction in printing
While we plan to have a more comprehensive strategy in place over the coming months that will reduce our carbon emissions further, we also recognise that we must take action now to offset our current operations emissions.
Investing in offsets
We have partnered with Vita to offset our operations footprint. Vita is an Irish NGO fighting hunger and climate change in Africa. It delivers sustainable livelihoods to rural farm families in Ethiopia and Eritrea, by addressing food security and household energy needs of families, using a community-led model.
Vita has developed a cook stove programme that puts women at the centre of the project, providing them with the supplies, skills and knowledge to build and more importantly maintain an improved stove that is 60% more fuel-efficient. These stoves are not only better for the environment, they allow greater income generation; are safer for the women and families using them; improve home health; and give those in the community more autonomy and independence.
The carbon accreditation is internationally recognised and validated to the highest standard and also delivers on five of the UN sustainable Development Goals – Health, Gender Equality, Water, Clean Energy & Climate Action.
While we acknowledge that this is a first step, we are committed to going further and engaging with more climate action partners that help us reduce our energy usage and carbon consumption over the longer term.
The Future
We have offset our entire operational carbon footprint and we intend to continue to do this as we reduce our emissions in the coming years. Our environment team has also been given the authority to work on and develop our environment strategy and it is hoped that in the coming years will be able to design innovative new products and services that will enable SMBC Aviation Capital and our customers to play a positive role in addressing climate change.
In summary, we will:
- Measure, Avoid, Reduce and then Offset our emissions
- Support behavioural change internally through education & sustainability initiatives
- Audit and review our carbon footprint and offsetting projects along the way
- Develop holistic climate strategy that ties in with our business goals
- Promote change across aviation
Shane Matthews
Head of Strategic & Market Analysis