Aviation is unlikely to ever be considered particularly green. Not only is it responsible for almost as much climate-warming pollution as the entire UK, some three per cent of global emissions, but environmental campaigners warn its carbon footprint could quadruple by 2050.
And yet British Airways (BA) insists carbon neutral growth from 2020, in line with voluntary international aviation targets, is more than possible using a combination of operational efficiencies and new technology.

Through its One Destination plan the company is aiming to halve its net CO2 emissions by 2050 against 2005 levels and Jonathon Counsell, BA’s head of environment, is “absolutely confident” it can deliver on the ambitious target.

“For us, that [level] means the aviation industry can grow sustainably,” he says. “If the rest of the world can deliver 50 per cent cuts that keeps us at three per cent [of global emissions], which we think is a sustainable position.”

The big problem BA has to overcome to meet its goal is jet fuel consumption, which represents 99 per cent of its overall carbon footprint.

For a start, the company has “about 50 initiatives” dedicated to flying smarter, shorter, and lighter, Counsell says, with an overall goal of reducing carbon emissions to 83 grams per passenger kilometre by 2035. The company has already made steady progress from its 2007 baseline of 110g/CO2 pkm, reaching just over 102g/CO2 pkm in 2011.

Over the next four months 60 flights to the US will experiment with using GPS to track more direct routes and smooth take-offs and landings to avoid wasting fuel. Quicker landings also avoid keeping aircraft in holding patterns, which has unwanted noise and pollution effects.

Counsell anticipates further savings when a new fleet of 12 Airbus A380s and 24 Boeing 787s comes in next year. Both of these models are slated to be 20 per cent more efficient than the aircraft they are replacing.

Meanwhile, the company is also taking innovative steps designed to deliver incremental efficiency savings. For example, BA has realised some flights require less potable water on board than others - contrast a corporate traveller-dominated overnight service to New York with a daytime journey stacked with children to Florida, for example. Profiling such flights has helped shrink reserves from the standard 1.5 tonnes on a 747 to one tonne, lightening the load and saving fuel.

Similarly, Counsell predicts further fuel savings of 0.4 per cent could be achieved with a low-friction outside coating for aircraft which has already performed well in tests.

However, with the exception of the new aircraft, these efforts are unlikely to make the huge leaps demanded by BA’s sustainability goals - so to make the requisite progress BA is investing heavily in alternative green fuels.

The company signed a deal with US-based biofuels specialist Solena in 2009 committing to work together to build a biofuels plant at one of four sites in East London capable of turning waste into jet fuel.

Using waste as a feedstock bypasses the criticisms levelled at traditional, crop-based fuels of damaging land use change and pushing up food prices.

Counsell reckons the Solena plant could account for two per cent of BA’s fuel from 2015 and says construction work is imminent.

“We have a preferred site for the project and an engineering company that will build it,” he says. “We’re getting close to having all the pieces in the jigsaw coming together … [and] should be making an announcement before the end of the year.

Lufthansa, KLM, and Virgin are among other large carriers experimenting with alternative fuels and as oil prices spike and pressure to cut emissions grows and Counsell envisages a future where sustainable biofuels account for 20 per cent of the industry’s fuel.

“It’s been proven the will is there, the technology is now a commercial issue,” he adds. “The route we’re going down will be cost competitive with fossil fuel by 2015. And once we’ve proven the technology, we can look at building more plants across the UK.”