Sustainability In The Air

In this episode, we speak with Claudia Huegel, Senior Director, Head of ESG Rating and Reporting, Lufthansa Group, who shares how one of the world’s oldest and largest airline groups threads sustainability through its strategy, its reporting, and, increasingly, its relationship with the passenger.
She discusses:
The near-term levers to decarbonising by 2030: Why fleet renewal does the heaviest lifting this decade, delivering 15-25% efficiency gains per aircraft.
The green fares story: How Lufthansa became the first airline group in the world to launch a dedicated sustainable fare, trialling it in the Nordics with a 20% SAF and 80% climate-project mix, and growing adoption from below 1% to around 5% over roughly three years.
Making SAF visible: How the group turns fuel farms at Frankfurt into branded signage, runs SAF marketing through Lufthansa Cargo, and structures bulk SAF deals with corporate customers.
Mandates versus incentives: Why the ReFuelEU 2% obligation was met in molecules in 2025 but largely with imported fuel, why she suspects incentives build supply better than mandates, and her call for ETS revenue to be reinvested in SAF infrastructure.
If you LOVED this episode, you'll also love the conversation we had with Lahiru Ranasinghe, Director of Sustainability at easyJet, who shares what it takes to move a major low-cost carrier from a sustainability blueprint to real-world results. Check it out here.
Learn more about the innovators who are navigating the industry’s challenges to make sustainable aviation a reality, in our new book ‘Sustainability in the Air: Volume 2’. Click here to learn more.
Feel free to reach out via email to podcast@simpliflying.com. For more content on sustainable aviation, visit our website green.simpliflying.com and join the movement. It's about time.
Links & More:
Climate and Environment - Lufthansa Group 
Green Fares: More sustainable air travel - Lufthansa 
Fly more sustainably - Lufthansa 
Lufthansa Group sees ‘growing demand’ for sustainable fares - Business Travel News Europe
Lufthansa Passengers offset 710,000 tonnes of CO2 through climate program - ESG Today

In this episode, we speak with Robert Hyslop, Executive Vice President of Global Aviation at DHL Express, who oversees one of the world’s largest dedicated air cargo networks and has helped turn the company into one of the biggest corporate buyers of sustainable aviation fuel.
He discusses:
Tripling SAF usage in a single year: How DHL moved from 3.5% to 10% SAF use within a year by securing reliable suppliers early and signing offtake agreements globally, purchasing allotments well ahead of when the fuel will actually be used.
The GoGreen Plus programme: How DHL’s GoGreen Plus product lets customers co-invest in decarbonising their shipments, and how it has had a strong take-up in emerging markets, and how those revenues are reinvested into buying more SAF.
The virtual global airline and book-and-claim: Why DHL operates as a network of airlines rather than one carrier, relies heavily on belly space in passenger aircraft, and has become the scope 3 customer in a five-year book-and-claim deal with IAG Cargo.
Efficiency as the other half of the story: How fleet modernisation from the 747 to the 777 freighter, plus a fuel optimisation programme rolled out across 12 airlines, avoids 15-17 million gallons of fuel a year.
Why SAF remains the mainstay: Why heavy, long-haul cargo cannot yet move away from the conventional jet fuel.
If you LOVED this episode, you’ll also love the conversation we had with Aaron Robinson, Vice President of SAF at the International Airlines Group (IAG), who shares the airline group’s journey to becoming the global leader in SAF use. Check it out here.
Learn more about the innovators who are navigating the industry’s challenges to make sustainable aviation a reality, in our new book ‘Sustainability in the Air: Volume 2’. Click here to learn more.
Feel free to reach out via email to podcast@simpliflying.com. For more content on sustainable aviation, visit our website green.simpliflying.com and join the movement. It’s about time.

Links & More:
Sustainability - DHL Group 
GoGreen Plus: Reduce carbon emissions - DHL  
DHL Express and Phillips 66 advance SAF usage in the US through multi-year agreement - Biofuels International Magazine 
DHL, IAG Cargo sign 5-year deal to use SAF to reduce air freight emissions - ESG Today 
DHL signs sustainable aviation fuel supply deal with SAF One in Bahrain - Reuters

In this episode, we speak with Elvis Ebikade, Director of Strategic Market Development at Bioleum Corporation, about why the Global South should be producing SAF rather than just exporting raw feedstocks, how renewable fuels are becoming an energy security play, the technical challenge of getting aromatics into SAF, and what actually separates a bankable SAF project from a good-looking spreadsheet.
Ebikade discusses:
The case for Africa and Southeast Asia as SAF producers, not just feedstock suppliers
Why exporting feedstocks and reimporting SAF adds a carbon intensity penalty that undermines the product's core value
Feedstock diversity in Africa: HEFA, alcohol-to-jet, woody biomass, and e-fuels
The energy security reframe: why renewable fuels change who sits at the table
Export vs book-and-claim: why there's no single model for Global South SAF
What Bioleum is building: lignin-to-aromatics, cellulosic ethanol, and the Hexas Biomass acquisition
Why most SAF today still needs to be blended with fossil jet fuel before it can be used to power aircraft
What makes a SAF project bankable: feedstock, offtake, EPC, and a credible path to cost parity
The gap between financial models and operational reality
If you LOVED this episode, you’ll also love the conversation we had with Meg Gentle, Executive Director at HIF Global, about how synthetic fuels and waste-based pathways could reshape the economics of sustainable aviation fuel. Check it out here. 
Learn more about the innovators who are navigating the industry’s challenges to make sustainable aviation a reality, in our new book ‘Sustainability in the Air: Volume 2’. Click here to learn more.
Feel free to reach out via email to podcast@simpliflying.com. For more content on sustainable aviation, visit our website green.simpliflying.com and join the movement. It’s about time.
Links & More:
Bioleum Corporation 
Why the Global South could produce aviation's cheapest sustainable fuels - SimpliFlying
The six-times markup that convinced a Kenyan entrepreneur to make his own SAF - SimpliFlying 
Could Cameroon become Central Africa's SAF gateway? - SimpliFlying 
The country that banned petrol cars is now betting on SAF - SimpliFlying
Hexas: A sustainable solution to the food vs. fuel debate - SimpliFlying

In this episode, we speak with Conor Madigan, founder and CEO of Aether Fuels, a climate technology company converting abundant waste carbon into low-cost sustainable fuels for aviation and ocean shipping. Madigan is one of the few founders approaching the SAF cost problem from an engineering-first, problem-first standpoint.
He discusses:
A problem-first approach to company building: Why Madigan began with a blank sheet of paper in 2020, fixed on the problem before choosing a technology, and only then exclusively licensed foundational technology from Chicago-area research institute GTI Energy.
Moving beyond the HEFA feedstock ceiling: Why today's dominant SAF process, which converts waste fats, oils and greases, cannot keep pace with projected SAF demand demand as mandates tighten towards 2030.
A contrarian bet against cheap hydrogen: Why Aether chose in 2022 to prioritise biogas, biomass and industrial off-gases over CO2-and-hydrogen e-fuels, judging that optimistic hydrogen price forecasts were unlikely to hold.
The Aether Aurora technology: How tri-conversion merges two reaction steps into one reactor, how an electrified reactor lifts yield, and how novel catalysts cut the cost of fuel upgrading, all aimed at the capital cost that makes waste-fed plants expensive.
Why Singapore won Project Beacon: How a fast-moving partnership with Aster, predictable government policy and ties to Temasek made Singapore the site of Aether's first commercial plant, and what other countries can learn from the model.
Discipline on offtakes and the real scaling bottleneck: Why Aether has resisted investor pressure to sign speculative offtake agreements, and why Madigan sees project development and financing, not chemistry, as the constraint on scaling SAF.
If you LOVED this episode, you’ll also love the conversation we had with Synhelion’s Founder and CEO Philipp Furler who unpacked how the Swiss technology company is working to scale synthetic fuels by tackling some of the fundamental cost and infrastructure barriers facing SAF today. Check it out here.
Learn more about the innovators who are navigating the industry's challenges to make sustainable aviation a reality, in our new book ‘Sustainability in the Air: Volume 2’. Click here to learn more.
Feel free to reach out via email to podcast@simpliflying.com. For more content on sustainable aviation, visit our website green.simpliflying.com and join the movement. It's about time.
Links & More: 
Aether Fuels 
Aster and Aether Fuels partner on the first next-generation commercial SAF plant in Singapore 
RTI supports Aether Fuels in scaling sustainable aviation fuel 
Singapore Airlines Group and Aether Fuels sign MoU for sustainable aviation fuel
Aster and Aether Fuels Partner on the First Next-Generation Commercial Sustainable Aviation Fuel Plant in Singapore

In this episode, we speak with Maria del Mar Whittaker, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer at Abra Group, the holding company behind airlines like Avianca and Gol. 
Whittaker discusses:
Aviation as an essential service: Why flying in Latin America is an essential service because the geography of the continent makes road and rail alternatives impractical for several routes.
Balancing growth and sustainability: How Avianca grew by nearly 20% between 2019 and 2024 while cutting its emissions intensity by a similar margin.
A cross-border compliance book-and-claim mechanism: How Abra Group has developed a novel proposal under which SAF produced in Brazil can be physically used domestically, while Japanese entities can purchase the corresponding SAF certificates, effectively subsidising the green premium for Brazilian airlines and creating bankable demand that can unlock project financing.
Revenue certainty mechanisms and double-auction systems: How Abra Group is proposing a multilateral-funded revenue certainty mechanism for Brazil, modelled loosely on the UK’s approach.
A systems-level view of SAF sustainability: Why Whittaker insists that SAF feedstock decisions must account for water, biodiversity, and indirect land use impacts at a systemic level.
If you LOVED this episode, you’ll also love the conversation we had with Lahiru Ranasinghe, Director of Sustainability at easyJet, who shares what it takes to move a major low-cost carrier from a sustainability blueprint to real-world results. Check it out here.
Learn more about the innovators who are navigating the industry's challenges to make sustainable aviation a reality, in our new book ‘Sustainability in the Air: Volume 2’. Click here to learn more.
Feel free to reach out via email to podcast@simpliflying.com. For more content on sustainable aviation, visit our website green.simpliflying.com and join the movement. It's about time.

Links & More: 
Avianca’s growing connectivity while improving overall emission performance
Abra and Sumitomo partner to unlock industry solutions to airline decarbonisation in Brazil - Biofuels International
Article 6 of the Paris Agreement - UNFCCC 
Japan’s Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM)