The NBAA has released guidance documents for its new Sustainable Flight Department Accreditation Programme, which identifies business aviation entities who meet exceptional environmental sustainability standards.

The programme's goal is to further advance a sustainability culture in the business aviation community by encouraging participants to think and act critically and implement as many sustainability strategies as possible, while recognising the diversity of business aviation operations.

“The Sustainable Flight Department Accreditation Programme creates a mechanism for members to align with their overall corporate strategy,” says director, environmental and technical operations Stewart D'Leon. “It gives them an avenue to work towards sustainability and be acknowledged for the work they are doing by having a third party, NBAA, audit and verify the information they are presenting. The programme also provides a path for members who are just getting started in the sustainability effort.”

The programme contains guidance documents for four accreditations: the Flight Accreditation is focused on reducing environmental impact as a result of conducting flights (eg carbon and other emissions) and creating efficiencies; the Operations Accreditation is focused on optimising a sustainability culture with an emphasis on the carbon emissions as a result of personnel air travel and implementation of environmental programmes such as recycling and the reduction of resources; the Ground Support Accreditation is focused on implementing sustainable strategies related to equipment and vehicles that support the business aviation entity operations (eg aircraft tugs, business aviation entity owned/leased vehicles); and the Infrastructure Accreditation is focused on advancing sustainability through physical infrastructures such as hangars and facilities.

The application period for the programme is set to open early February and close on 31 March. NBAA will be scheduling webinars to provide a programme overview and answer applicant questions on the process. Programme resources are publicly available on the NBAA Learning Management System.