Iberia has two objectives that mark its future in the medium term: on the one hand, IAG is the first group of airlines in the world that has committed itself to achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 and, on the other, the group is going to operate in 2030 10% of flights with SAF, sustainable fuel for aviation. These are two very ambitious goals that will contribute to the United Nations goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Over the next 20 years, the IAG group will invest close to $900 million in sustainable aviation fuels, and that number is growing. Those known as SAF, for its acronym in English, are obtained thanks to the transformation into fuel of domestic waste, among other materials, and manage to reduce up to 80% less CO2 emissions than fossil fuel in terms of life cycle. In addition, they can be used in current aircraft, since it does not require any transformation in its design or in the airport infrastructure.
At the same time, Iberia is renewing its fleet with the most advanced and efficient aircraft on the market. In 2022, the Spanish airline added 13 new aircraft, seven A350s – four of them with the latest Airbus standard – and six A320 neo. The former, used for long-haul routes, are between 30 and 35% more efficient than the aircraft they replace (A340) thanks to state-of-the-art materials and the engines they are equipped with, while the latter are for short and medium haul routes and are between 15 and 20% more efficient.
All these initiatives have allowed Iberia to be the second airline in the world that has reduced its CO2 emissions the most on long-haul flights between 2019 and 2022, according to a report prepared by the independent aviation consultancy IBA, which carries out annual monitoring of more than 65,000 aircraft and 35 million flights.
The Iberia Group has the CO2labora program that allows its customers to offset the emissions from their flights through two certified climate projects: one in Guatemala and the other in Peru.
Since this program was launched in 2022, the airline’s customers and 40 companies have offset more than 140 tons of CO2.
The carbon footprint is calculated using a Grupo Iberia calculator that obtains the equivalent of monetary investment through the certified climate projects offered by Iberia.
In 2023, the company estimates that the reduction of plastics on board will reach 200 tons thanks to all these initiatives that have already been launched:
This reduction of plastic on board the company’s aircraft has been complemented by a similar action on the ground. In this sense, in the Premium Lounge rooms of the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport, cans and plastic containers have been eliminated and replaced by returnable glass. In addition, suppliers have been asked to prioritize bulk over individual for some products. Thanks to this measure, waste has been reduced by almost one million cans and 200,000 plastic containers per year.
In addition to the progressive elimination of plastics on board, Iberia continues to make progress with its Zero Cabin Waste management project, and in 2022, it managed to recycle 43 percent of cabin waste, which will have a new life .
Within the Zero Cabin Waste program, last year Iberia included the selective collection of the glass generated on board, which made it possible to manage and recycle 62 tons of this material at the catering provider’s facilities in Madrid.
The Zero Cabin Waste project for the management of waste generated on board has been implemented on Iberia aircraft since 2018 in collaboration with Ecoembes, Ferrovial Servicios and ESCI UPF, among others, and has been operating on all Iberia routes since 2019.
To carry it out, the entire company fleet has compartmentalized carts that allow the separation of plastic containers, cans and briks, paper and cardboard containers and glass from the rest of the waste. In this way, the waste already separated on flights is received separately at the Madrid Barajas-Adolfo Suárez Airport facilities and is subsequently removed by the waste manager, classified by materials and recycled at the respective facilities.
Another of Iberia’s initiatives in this regard, in collaboration with Envera (the non-profit Association of Iberia Employees Parents of People with Disabilities), is a project to recycle their uniforms. The company debuted its new uniforms for cabin staff and Madrid airport employees in 2022.
To give a second life to the garments of the previous model, it has launched this project that has a double environmental and social aspect: on the one hand, it is based on the circular economy that optimizes the use of materials and products, applying the rules of reducing, reuse and recycle; and, on the other hand, it serves to give employment to people with disabilities from Envera. On average, each worker had 14 items of clothing and accessories, which means more than 50 tons of textile products.
With this project, Iberia and Envera show their commitment to sustainability and promote recovery and recycling, the circular economy and green employment.
80% of the items from the previous Iberia uniform will have a second life through charitable donations that help to improve the lives of vulnerable people and refugees. Specifically, they will go to social projects in Spain of the Red Cross, Diocesan Caritas, CEAR, Messengers of Peace, San José Hospital Foundation, Mundo Justo and Atenea Foundation; and international development cooperation programs from AUDE, Equipo Vicente del Bosque from Senegal, Hombre Nuevo Tierra Nueva, Volunteers for Africa, Humana Fundación Pueblo para Pueblo and the Iberia employee NGO Mano a mano.
As for the other 20%, which is not reusable, it will be transformed through recycling processes into other materials, and those that are discarded will be used for energy recovery as fuel.
The reuse of textiles also contributes to the fight against climate change: for every kilogram of recovered clothing, the emission of 6.1 kg is avoided. of CO2, according to a study by the People to People Human Federation.
Iberia is also promoting the digitization of the entire experience of its customers to reduce the use of paper: from the purchase of tickets to the issuance of boarding passes, through the verification of all the documentation that passengers need for their flights.
On the other hand, Iberia has reduced food waste by 30% by encouraging its passengers to choose their menus in advance. The company continues to expand its pre-selection services, such as Pre-Order, to load essential food on the plane and thus avoid food waste.
