The Cathay Pacific Group is striving to become one of the world’s most sustainable aviation companies, with its 2022 Sustainable Development Report outlining ongoing environmental commitments and progress made in achieving its sustainability goals. Titled ‘Greener Together’, the report reflects Cathay Pacific’s belief that driving progress towards a more sustainable future requires strong partnerships and collective action.
Sustainability is a challenge being tackled on top of a recovery plan for the airline group, following the effects of lengthy Covid-19 travel restrictions. As CEO Ronald Lam explained: “As we enter an exciting new phase of rebuilding Cathay Pacific for Hong Kong, one of our key development areas is becoming a leader in sustainability. This means working together with many different stakeholders, partners and corporate customers to reconnect Hong Kong to the world in sustainable ways. The title of this year’s report, ‘Greener Together’, reflects our determination to foster stronger partnerships to help drive the sustainable development agenda and build a more sustainable future for our customers, our people and our communities.
“Despite the very difficult start we had to the year, 2022 saw a number of important milestones achieved in our sustainability journey. These involved yet more important steps towards developing the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) supply chain, reducing single-use plastics in our operations, and continuing to advance the agenda of wellness and diversity for our people. Moving people forward is our business and as we look ahead to the future, we are excited to continue contributing to important projects and being a positive driving force towards making aviation more sustainable,” he added.
Highlights from the 2022 report include:
Driving progress towards decarbonisation: As part of efforts to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and using SAF for 10% of its total fuel consumption by 2030, Cathay Pacific launched Asia’s first major corporate SAF programme. Garnering support from eight launch customers, the airline says the programme sends a strong signal to the SAF supply chain that there is firm interest in the region.
Extending carbon-offsets: First launched in 2007, Cathay Pacific’s long-standing voluntary carbon-offset programme, Fly Greener, has now been extended to its cargo operations – an extremely important part of the business.
Surpassing the target to cut single-use plastics: Cathay Pacific has reached a 56% reduction of single-use plastics use on a per passenger level compared to the 2018 baseline, and it is now in the process of launching a new target.
Driving diversity and inclusion (D&I) across operations: Cathay Pacific set a new and more ambitious goal to not have more than 65% of the same gender at senior positions by 2025, and as of April 2023, the airline will have a 50/50 gender split in its Executive Committee. Cathay Pacific also became the first commercial airline to be listed on the 2023 Bloomberg Gender Equality Index.
Promoting and enabling wellness: The report states that Covid-19 has been especially impactful to people’s wellbeing. In response, Cathay Pacific introduced a week-long Mental Health and Wellbeing Festival filled with various activities and workshops to promote wellness and support our people.
