International Business Aviation Council

“The IS-BAO and IS-BAH programs are what we’re, perhaps, best known for,” Edwards remarks, “because we’ve worked with the industry to establish these codes for safety practices that have then been taken up around the world and reflect the work that we’ve done to make sure they’re aligned with ICAO and support safe and efficient international operations.” IBAC is also actively focused on the area of environmental sustainability. “Since 2009, we have recognized that we have to take steps, ourselves, to mitigate, and ultimately reduce, our carbon footprint,” Edwards asserts. “For the last ten years, we have been striving, as an industry, to improve our fuel efficiency by two percent every year. From 2020, onward, we’ve agreed to an aspirational goal of carbon neutral growth. We’ve been focusing on that for a couple of years in terms of getting messaging out on it, but also in terms of helping many of our members participate in a global carbon- offsetting scheme, known as CORSIA, that has been established by the International Civil Aviation Organization.” “The last goal that we’re working on, right now, which is more long-term, is reducing our carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050, relative to 2005,” he adds. “And there are several ways of getting there. One is making operational improvements, modernizing our infrastructure so that air traffic management becomes more direct and efficient. Then, there are technologies related to composites that make aircraft more streamlined and aerodynamic. Another key component is the use of sustainable aviation fuel, and that’s been a major focus of IBAC and other industry associations, EBAA, GAMA, NATA, and NBAA, that make up the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Coalition. We’re calling for governments to put in place positive policies that would encourage or incentivize the production and use of sustainable aviation fuel; it’s a demonstrated technology that can be used, now, in current aircraft engines, and it’s important to find pathways for developing it further.” In the end, Edwards believes that IBAC’s advocacy is key to making sure that the things that matter to the business aviation community are taken into account on a global level. “Governments don’t just put in place standards for safety, or airport access, out of nowhere,” he states. “They come from a United Nations agency and the associations working on their behalf to get it done. This association has had and will continue to have an outsized impact for the industry.”