Voluntary Emissions Contribution Programme Overview
Overview
When booking a flight through Air New Zealand in a participating country or region, such as New Zealand, you can choose to make a contribution through our Voluntary Emissions Contribution Programme. When you participate, half your contribution goes towards Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), the airline’s most important lever to reduce aviation emissions.
The other half goes to our partner, Trees That Count, to support native nature projects around New Zealand. In the last three years, Air New Zealand passengers have funded more than 500,000 native trees across the country.
Our 2050 target
Air New Zealand is targeting net zero carbon emissions from jet fuel by 2050. The main way we'll achieve this is by reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and using more SAF as it becomes more available. Air New Zealand is purchasing and using small amounts of SAF today. We’re also participating in the broader SAF ecosystem because we believe it will take collective action to scale SAF.
In New Zealand, we are investing in the potential for domestic SAF production and supporting the development of a Sustainable Aviation Fuel certificate (SAFc) market. SAFc are the environmental attributes of SAF that allow customers to claim the associated emissions reductions.
When you participate in our Voluntary Emissions Contribution Programme, you're paying for a small portion of SAF which has been delivered into the aviation fuel system, and the emissions savings from that portion are allocated to you and no other passengers. Contributing to SAF doesn't reduce the emissions on the flight you book with us, but it does support Air New Zealand's use of SAF and lower lifecycle carbon emissions from aviation overall.
What is SAF
SAF is almost chemically identical to fossil jet fuel, but is made from non-fossil fuel sources, including waste-based raw materials, such as used cooking oil and forestry waste. SAF is blended and dropped into the fuel supply system at airports, just as fossil jet fuel is now. When burned, SAF and fossil jet fuel release the same amount of carbon emissions. However, the SAF Air New Zealand buys has significantly lower lifecycle emissions (typically ~75-90%) than fossil jet fuel. This is because it is produced from renewable materials, including waste and residues, rather than fossil crude oil.
SAF is currently significantly more expensive than fossil jet fuel (typically two to five times the cost) and global supply remains less than 1% of total jet fuel use.
How can businesses play their part?
Air New Zealand enables organisations to contribute to SAF and address their emissions through bulk purchases of the emission reduction attributes of SAF. Find out more about our Scope 3 Sustainable Aviation Fuel certificate Programme.
Emissions reporting for business travel and air freight
Air New Zealand has partnered with Chooose to help you understand the carbon footprint associated with your organisation's air travel and cargo on Air New Zealand services. Find out more about our Corporate Emissions Platform and Cargo Emissions Platform.