ESG reporting grows in importance for air cargo

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting will become increasingly important for the air cargo industry as investors, customers and regulators demand increased visibility on companies’ sustainability performance.

Speaking at the IATA World Cargo Symposium (WCS) on a sustainability panel chaired by Frederic Chapelle of PwC, speakers said that ESG reporting creates transparency, helps manage risk and creates cost efficiency.

Menzies Aviation head of sustainability and corporate responsibility Katy Reid explained that ESG reporting was about managing risk, whether that is related to environmental impact or how resilient your business is.

“For us, it is very much about making sure we are compliant but also a massive opportunity to show people what we are doing and that we will be resilient into the future.

“As an industry, we are under scrutiny whether we like it or not and actually being able to show everyone what we are doing, that we are making the changes we need to make to have a sustainable future for aviation is fundamental.

“We are pre-empting what more governments might do and their focus on aviation and if we can show that we are being proactive and making the changes that are needed, then that is no bad thing and might set us all in good stead.”

For Turkish Airlines manager of corporate sustainability management Deniz Dastan, the importance of ESG reporting has been growing as regulatory compliance becomes more complex.

She said that investors and customers are increasingly interested in the environmental and social impact of companies they invest in and buy from.

“ESG reporting can help organisations to meet these expectations and build trust with stakeholders,” she said.

Reporting on performance can also help drive improvements in performance, she added.

This view was echoed by Markus Flacke, business development director of Lufthansa Industry Solutions.

“If you don’t have a baseline then where do you start from and you don’t know where you are heading to,” he said.

“If you want to play in this game and you want to be part of an innovative industry you need to define the baseline.”

He added that ESG reporting can also help to identify whether there are more cost and energy efficient ways of operating.