A Proposal for Supporting and Enhancing Riyadh Air’s Sustainability Strategy

1. Green air travel and global sustainability is a top priority for many airlines for 2030. A rise in consumer awareness, as well as a broader acceptance of the sector’s impact on global carbon emissions, has encouraged those in the industry to rethink their attitudes towards climate change. As a result of sustainable commitments becoming the norm, standards always get higher and it is increasingly difficult for companies to be visible.
2. In the current decentralization, polarization and post-global context, ESG corporate policies need to be everyday more localized, for more efficiency, to better meet local stakeholders’ needs, avoid social risks and limit extra costs. Indeed, one of the main challenges faced by global companies’ CEOs today are the increasing socio-cultural gaps between their sustainability policy-makers and their local stakeholders worldwide, leading to costly policies that are not really adapted to local contexts and views at best, or that face global backlash in social media at worst.

3. We are in a new era of aviation, which is more than selling seats. In 2023, it’s all about finding new paths to becoming profitable and uniting the entire travel experience: when the world becomes sterile and standardized, consumers will need more authenticity when travelling.

Top 4 Best Sustainable Aviation Practices & ESG in the Aviation Sector (as of June 2023)

1. Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF)

         This includes more fuel-efficient aircrafts and sustainable aviation fuels (e-fuels).

2. Global Action on Carbon Emissions

         This includes operational improvements (incl. net zero infrastructures), carbon capture projects, carbon negative strategies.

3. Green Certification(s)

         This includes the increasing number of sustainability labels that will help consumers make their choices.

4. Sustainable Supply Chains

         This includes more efficient financial and socio-cultural risks assessments with stakeholders and partnerships.

What We Propose

The 4 best practices above require technical aspects and innovation, but also involve social aspects. The recent news around ESG/Sustainability policies show us that aviation companies cannot reach their objectives if they are not able to integrate the socio-cultural needs and views of their stakeholders. To solve this issue, we propose to co-develop with the company an innovative local-socio-cultural sensitive approach for its future ESG/Sustainability policies.

The objectives of this new ESG/Sustainability strategy are: (a) provide more visibility to the company in the global, regional and sustainability markets, (b) help the company’s staff better assess and avoid future socio-cultural risks and (c) help the company build sustainable partnerships along its supply chains, by providing an added value respect to the competition.

To do so, we propose the following services & agenda, as a first step of collaboration:

1. Benchmark futuristic & best practices for ESG and sustainability in the aviation sector: to be delivered through trainings & capacity building for the company’s employees.
2. Support consulting in the making-of the company’s new ESG/Sustainability strategy: desk-based analysis and proposal, initiative design & implementation, program design & implementation.