We have covered, here on this site, how Norway has become one of the pathfinders in the field of sustainable aviation.

The quest to find longer term, game-changing technologies to decarbonize aviation goes on and, in fact, Norway has already the goal of going totally carbon free in the domestic air travel market by 2040 (with more stringent ambitious goals going to be announced soon - watch this space!) while local companies like regional Norwegian airline Wideroe, are active in the field of green propulsion.

In the meantime, though, Norwegian aviation firms are also undertaking their own de-carbonization commitments with whatever means they have at hand.

Avinor, the Norwegian airport operator, wants to be fossil fuel-free by 2030, while SAS expects to reduce its carbon footprint by 25% (with respect to its 2005 level) by the same date.

2030 is also the reference year in Norwegian’s sustainability strategy.

Norwegian wants to reduce its carbon footprint (measured as emissions per passenger kilometer), by no less than 45% vs the levels of 2010. Quite an ambitious target, but, the red-nosed airline is already more than half the way there! According to its latest sustainability strategy document, Norwegian had already reduced carbon emissions by 28% (also vs. 2010) by 2019.

The strategy outlined by Norwegian is actually an example of how existing technologies can be squeezed to make for greener flying.

There is no silver bullet here, but rather a combination of different incremental measures, starting with Norwegian’s policy of keeping a very young, fuel efficient fleet.

Sustainable fuels will also play a major role and Norwegian is aiming to use blends of between 16 and 28% of sustainable fuels, which can pose quite a strain onto the supply side, since the sustainable aviation fuels market and productive capacity is currently quite limited (and costs are higher than for normal fuel). To put this figure in context, at present, even environmentally-minded Norway has set the minimum biofuel use mandate for airlines at just 0.5%.

Other improvements are going to come from optimization of current operations and processes, for example, among other initiatives, Norwegian uses the SkyBreathe flight path analysis software produced by French company Open Airlines to help pilots fly in ways that burn less fuel. These improvements are also expected to reduce the amount of waste produced.

Norwegian’s sustainability initiatives are just one of many other interesting things that are currently going on in Norway. In the last few weeks I have got the chance to speak with people at several of the organizations that are beind this environmental drive, so expect plenty more about this topic to come up on this site soon!

Norwegian outlines sustainability strategy (2030)