Bank of America to Address Travel Emissions Through SAF Purchase Program
Bank of America announced that is joining a sustainable aviation fuel purchase program provided by American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) and Shell Aviation aimed at enabling companies to address their travel emissions using SAF and supporting the growth of the SAF market.
Launched last year with 1 million gallons of SAF on the blockchain-powered Avelia platform, the program utilizes a book-and-claim model, enabling business travelers to pay for SAF and claim the environmental benefits, even if the SAF is not available at their departure airport. The solution was developed by Shell and Accenture, with the support of the Energy Web Foundation (EWF), and includes Amex GBT’s travel management services to aggregate global demand for SAF from its 19,000 global customers.
Andrew Crawley, President of Amex GBT, said:
“The business travel sector has a critical role to play in scaling SAF and accelerating the decarbonization of travel. We will move closer to achieving these objectives with more companies like Bank of America making bold commitments and recognizing the powerful role the corporate travel program can play in achieving a company’s broader sustainability ambitions.”
The announcement marks the first financial institution to join the program. Bank of America set a series of SAF-focused commitments last year, including goals to support the production and use of one billion gallons SAF, and mobilize $2 billion in sustainable finance for the production of SAF and other low-carbon aviation solutions by 2030, as well as a target to utilize SAF for at least 20% of the company’s total annual corporate and commercial jet fuel usage – equal to approximately 3 million gallons of SAF per year – by 2030.
Beth Sullivan, Head of Global Corporate and Executive Travel at Bank of America, said:
“This is another step Bank of America is taking to reach our goal of having SAF account for at least 20% of our annual employee air travel by 2030. By purchasing SAF and working with other companies, we are taking more tangible steps to help build a more affordable and accessible sustainable aviation fuel market.”
Jan Toschka, President, Shell Aviation, added:
“It’s brilliant to see Bank of America leading the finance sector’s charge to decarbonize business travel through SAF and I’m proud they have chosen Avelia to help them do this. Corporations that choose to fly on SAF have the power to catalyze the scaling of this technology and accelerate decarbonization across the aviation sector.”