Hong Kong-based carrier Cathay Pacific Group has released its 2022 Sustainable Development Report outlining its progress in achieving sustainability goals. According to a press release by the airline, the study Greener Together, demonstrates Cathay Pacific’s conviction that driving progress towards a sustainable future requires strong partnerships and collective action.

Ronald Lam

“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,’’ says Chief Executive Officer Ronald Lam.

“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,” Lam adds.

According to the statement, one of the key highlights of the reports was driving progress towards decarbonisation to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. It adds that by setting a target of using SAF for 10 pc of the total fuel consumption by 2030, Cathay Pacific launched Asia’s first major Corporate SAF Programme. Garnering support from eight launch customers, the programme sends a strong signal to the SAF supply chain that there is firm interest in the region.

The report says that first launched in 2007, Cathay Pacific’s long-standing voluntary carbon-offset programme, Fly Greener, has also been extended to cargo operations, to provide customers with a more sustainable cargo solution.

It adds that Cathay Pacific also set a new goal to not have more than 65 pc of the same gender at senior positions by 2025, and as of April 2023 they will have a 50/50 gender split in the Executive Committee. Cathay Pacific became the first commercial airline to be listed on the 2023 Bloomberg Gender Equality Index.

The report added that wellness promotion and facilitation post Covid-19 was also underlined. To promote wellbeing and support the people, Cathay Pacific started a week-long mental health and wellbeing festival with a variety of events and workshops.