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The pressure on air cargo to be sustainable declined last year in a “shock” industry survey result, according to the latest Tiaca Sustainability Insights Report.
The report included a survey of 274 industry professionals and this year 61% of respondents said they felt pressure to be sustainable compared with 67% in 2024 and 64% in 2023.
It is the first time since 2022 that the results have shown that the pressure to be sustainable has decreased.
Tiaca secretary general Glyn Hughes said that it was “quite a shock” to see a decrease, adding that the result was "one we were not prepared for”.
The survey also shows that the pressure to be sustainable was down 13 percentage points to 44% for small businesses, flat at 60% for medium businesses and down five percentage points to 71% for large businesses.
However, Tiaca also pointed out that the pressure to be sustainable was still higher than in 2021 when 58% of respondents felt the pressure to be sustainable and 2022 when the figure stood at 56%.
“This is one that we were not prepared for,” said Hughes. "We have all seen in the press that since [US] president [Donald] Trump came into office the focus on diversity equity and inclusivity has diminished and the US focus on global warming has diminished as he feels they are not crucial topics.”
Hughes said that the survey also asked why sustainability matters to companies, and here there was also a decrease across the various options, other than for shareholders.
"Over the last few years, we have seen an increase in every sector, whether it is customers, employees, partners, shareholders, financial institutions, regulators, community etc.
"What we are seeing here now is that it is still important for all of those sectors but the scale of that importance is decreasing. It is only shareholders where we have seen an increase.
“Every one of the other categories has actually decreased vs the prior year. Again that is reversing the trend we saw over the previous two years.”
He added: “[It is] a little bit of an alarming situation going forward and as an association we need to continually remind people that sustainability as a topic is one of the most crucial factors to enable this industry to thrive as different groups become more challenging of us as a transport sector.”
There were also some positive results in the survey, with one question highlighting that sustainability was gaining greater visibility at the chief executive and chief financial officer levels.
The survey showed that 96% of respondents confirm support from their chief executives, while 88% report chief financial officer engagement in sustainability initiatives.
It also showed that 71% of companies now have a dedicated sustainability strategy, with larger firms leading at 84% compared to 60% of small businesses.
Other results showed that 42% of surveyed organisations have a dedicated sustainability budget, and 53% now have a sustainability team, reinforcing the industry's commitment to ESG initiatives.
And the report notes a decline in engagement with SAF and carbon offset initiatives, with only 32% of companies actively investing in SAF solutions and 35% utilising carbon offsets.
Instead, 72% of companies are prioritising energy efficiency to decarbonise operations and reduce costs.
This includes fleet modernisation, digitalisation, and innovation as key focus areas, with 84% actively investing in digital solutions and 83% in innovation-driven sustainability measures.
There is also an industry-wide push to eliminate single-use plastics, with 91% of respondents indicating active measures to phase out single-use plastics and foam.
Meanwhile, the results also highlighted that respondents mainly viewed sustainability from the perspective of environmental topics.
"We also need to focus on us as an industry,” said Hughes. "Attracting the next generation, how we can become more efficient, how we can use digitalisation, how we can create the right working environment, how we can create a fully inclusive and diverse workforce so we can capture the opportunity that presents and create an industry that can really be a good career choice for everybody.
"So it is interesting to note the strong focus on environment but we as an association need to make sure the other parts of the sustainability agenda continue to get a lot of focus."
