Air Elite by World Fuel, a network of independent FBOs, has announced that 43 member locations have become carbon neutral. Working with Air Elite's network locations, World Fuel Services' affiliate, World Kinect Energy Services, analysed the member's energy use and retired carbon offsets to compensate for their 2019 Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions.

Additionally, Air Elite and World Fuel Services have launched the same process to balance its 2020 Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions and have committed to becoming a sustainable network in 2020 and beyond.

The 43 Air Elite member locations that have achieved carbon neutrality for 2019 are: Fast Air Jet Centre, Winnipeg, Canada; Jet Aviation, Düsseldorf, Germany; Executive Jet Centre, Birmingham, UK; Harrods Aviation, London Luton, UK; Harrods Aviation, London Stansted, UK; Grafair Jet Center, Stockholm, Sweden; Jet Aviation Boston, Bedford, Massachusetts, USA; Jet Aviation St. Louis, Cahokia, Illinois, USA; Jet Aviation, Dallas, Texas, USA; Aero-One Aviation, Dothan, Alabama, USA; Monaco Air Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota, USA; Fort Collins-Loveland jetCenter, Loveland, Colorado, USA; Hill Aircraft, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Henderson Executive Airport, Henderson, Nevada, USA; Jet Aviation, Houston, Texas, USA; Jet Aviation, Washington/Dulles, Virginia, USA; Vee Neal Aviation, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, USA; Granite Air Center, West Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA; Ross Aviation, Long Beach, California, USA; Silverhawk Aviation, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; Jet Aviation, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA; Swift Aviation, Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Maven by Midfield Waterford, Michigan, USA; Ross Aviation, Rectrix Sarasota, Florida, USA; Golden Isles Aviation, St. Simons Island, Georgia, USA; Jet Aviation Teterboro, New Jersey; North Las Vegas Airport, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Clay Lacy Aviation, Van Nuys, California, USA; Dassault Falcon Service, Paris le Bourget, France; Jet Aviation Geneva, Switzerland; Jet Aviation Zurich, Switzerland; Jet Aviation Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Great Circle Flight Services Anchorage, Alaska (operated by Ross Aviation); Avjet Asia, Seoul, South Korea; Aerocardal Limitada Santiago, Chile; World-Way Aviation Sorocaba, Brazil; Ecuacentair Quito, Ecuador; Jet Aviation San Juan, Puerto Rico; Jet Aviation Singapore; Jet Aviation Brisbane, Australia; Jet Aviation Cairns, Australia; Jet Aviation Perth, Australia; and Jet Aviation Sydney, Australia.

In addition to its Air Elite member locations, Jet Aviation has made its operations carbon-neutral at the following six locations: Jet Aviation, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Jet Aviation, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Jet Aviation, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Jet Aviation, Rotterdam, The Hague, Netherlands; Jet Aviation, Van Nuys, California, USA; and Jet Aviation, Vienna, Austria

The three newest Air Elite locations for 2021 have also committed to becoming carbon-neutral for 2021 and beyond: Jet Aviation, Bozeman, Montana, USA; Jet Aviation, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA; Clay Lacy Aviation, Orange County, California, USA.

Larry Wade, president, Golden Isles Aviation and Air Elite board chair says: “Sustainability is an important responsibility for our industry and is a growing desire for our customers. In response, Air Elite has started its sustainability journey. I am proud of the 43 Air Elite members that have stepped up to make their operations carbon-neutral. That's not an easy investment in this COVID era. Regardless, they have taken the first strides to set a path for Air Elite to be a carbon-neutral network, as well as supporting sustainability initiatives going forward.”

Steve Drzymalla, senior VP of business aviation bulk fuel, World Fuel Services, states: “We applaud the decision of Air Elite's leadership to pursue carbon neutrality. With our solutions, we are in the position to help network members easily achieve their carbon reduction goals. With our first sustainable aviation fuel shipments in 2014 to the addition of selling fuel bundled with offsets in our FBO software, World Fuel Services has and will continue to commit our resources to create a more sustainable future for our customers and the aviation industry.”

Granite Air Center, the sole FBO at Lebanon Municipal airport in Lebanon, New Hampshire, is very pleased to have reduced its environmental impact. “We are excited about achieving this milestone. In addition to being good stewards of the environment we feel it is good business,” says Greg Soho, Granite's CFO and other co-owner. “We will continue to look for ways to reduce our impact.”

Granite Air was able to achieve this goal by purchasing carbon offsets to make up for its Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions. Scope 1 emissions include all direct emissions from the company's operations, such as heating the buildings, operating vehicles and equipment, etc., while Scope 2 emissions primarily include the carbon footprint of the production of electricity consumed by the company.

The company hopes to achieve Scope 3 carbon neutrality in the coming years. Jason Archambeault, the company's co-owner and COO says Scope 3 carbon emissions are a much bigger challenge. “Scope 3 emissions are much more involved to calculate as you need to include every indirect emission related to the business in any way, right down to the miles driven by employees to get to and from work, for example. But we hope within the next couple of years we will be able to meet that goal.”