The Business Intelligence Group presented Gulfstream Aerospace a 2019 Sustainability Leadership Award for the airframer’s sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) initiatives, Gulfstream announced this week. It is given to companies and organizations that make sustainability an essential part of their operations.
Since 2011, when a Gulfstream G450 crossed the Atlantic on SAF, the Savannah, Georgia manufacturer has steadily increased its use and the promotion of biofuels. Four years ago, it signed an agreement with World Fuel Services to provide Gulfstream with a consistent supply of SAF for corporate, demonstration, customer support, and test flights from its Savannah base, accounting for company-operated aircraft flying nearly 830,000 nm on SAF and, in the process, reducing its carbon dioxide emissions by 950 metric tons. Earlier this year, Gulfstream made SAF available to customers at its Long Beach, California facility.
“Innovation is at the core of our business, including our environmental strategy,” said Gulfstream president Mark Burns. “As a company, we explore ways to support the business-aviation industry’s sustainability goals and have done this by designing aircraft for better fuel efficiency and through our efforts to raise awareness of the effectiveness of sustainable aviation fuel in business aviation.”
Its SAF supply is chemically equivalent to conventional jet-A, and each gallon burned achieves a more than 50-percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, according to Gulfstream.