The airline business has faced constant challenges when it comes to decarbonization and ESG. The trouble is that air travel is emissions-heavy, and there aren’t many ways to get around the impact that air travel has on climate. These technical limitations haven’t stopped companies from trying to get an environmental edge over their competition, however. The use of offsetting and “sustainable aviation fuels” led some airlines to make claims many view as greenwashing. Recently the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) issued an opinion against Virgin Atlantic that struck another blow against “sustainable aviation fuels.” In November 2023, Virgin released a radio ad that stated in part:
“On the 28th of November, Virgin Atlantic’s Flight 100 will take to the skies on our unique flight mission from London Heathrow to JFK to become the world’s first commercial airline to fly transatlantic on 100% sustainable aviation fuel.”
According to the ASA’s description, this claim wasn’t exactly untrue. Virgin Atlantic Airways did conduct an R&D flight using 87.6% synthetic paraffinic kerosene and 12.4% synthetic aromatic kerosene – which fit within the internationally-accepted definitions of “sustainable aviation fuels.” So while according to the ASA’s description, the claim wasn’t exactly untrue, the trouble is that the public does not know or understand the internationally-accepted definitions of “sustainable aviation fuels” and may assume that “sustainable aviation fuels” meant fuels with no CO2 emissions. In reality, even though “sustainable aviation fuels” have a lower emissions profile, their emissions are still significant. The ASA writes in their opinion that:
“[consumers] were unlikely to be aware of the extent to which fuels described as sustainable aviation fuel still had negative environmental impacts, and in what ways. Those listeners who interpreted the claim ‘100% sustainable aviation fuel’ to mean that the fuel was 100% sustainable were likely to expect that it had no negative environmental impacts at all.”
The ASA instructed Virgin to ensure that future ads referring to the use of sustainable aviation fuel are fully qualified and include information that explain the environmental impacts of the fuel. Sustainability professionals should take note that while we have many internal definitions and jargon related to sustainability matters, the public is largely unfamiliar with these terms. A statement made to a room full of climate specialists may mean something different in that context than it would to your average person on the street. This is where external communications, specifically marketing communications have to tread carefully. If we want to avoid misleading communications we cannot assume that consumers speak our language, instead we must make an effort to speak theirs.
Our members can read more about misleading statements and greenwashing here.
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