Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) should be supplied in the most responsible way possible. In practice, transporting SAF to a specific airport far away from the production location often leads to unnecessary additional Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and costs. The Book & Claim model helps solve these challenges, among other benefits.
What is the Book & Claim model?
The Book & Claim model is a common practice where a company makes a sustainability claim based on sustainable goods that they did not physically receive. The sustainability claim has thus been decoupled from the physical product. The most notable and closest example is green electricity. Electricity cannot be tracked along the grid since it is all combined with gray electricity before entering a power outlet. To solve this challenge, Book & Claim systems were developed to allow customers to claim a specific amount of renewable energy. Electricity providers can enter or “book” the green electricity they have supplied to the grid and customers can “claim” the green electricity they have bought regardless of whether they have physically received gray or green electricity. Consumers will then receive a certificate stating the amount of renewable electricity they paid for and the environmental benefits they may claim.
But what does this mean when talking about SAF? This means that SAF is not physically transported and supplied to the company or person covering the fuel premium and claiming the environmental attributes (e.g. Board Now members). Instead, it is supplied via local jet fuel supply chains to airports close to the SAF production facility, thereby replacing an equivalent amount of fossil jet fuel. The environmental attributes are however decoupled from the SAF, preventing the airline, who makes use of the fuel, from laying claim to the allocation. The environmental attributes are sold and allocated to companies or people via a claim certificate.
The benefits of choosing Book & Claim
By choosing a Book & Claim model for SAF, you can:
1. Have more sustainable supply chains: SAF is currently produced in very limited locations around the world. To optimize the sustainability of SAF on a lifecycle basis, it is best to keep the supply chain as efficient as possible. By integrating the SAF into local jet fuel supply chains, the supply chain’s GHG emissions are minimized.
2. Keep costs down: SAF costs more than fossil jet fuel and so it is crucial for the development of the market that costs are minimized. If suppliers were required to supply their SAF to distant locations where their customer will physically use it, logistics would become significantly more complex and lengthier. This is inefficient and costly and would lead to a massive increase in the price of SAF.
3. Source SAF independently of airline and location: The Book & Claim model allows (corporate) buyers to source SAF based on their total aviation footprint in one transaction, rather than sourcing through each airline individually. This means that SAF can be sourced for flights with airlines or out of airports that do not physically have it.
4. Achieve any desired reduction: Sourcing SAF on a Book & Claim basis allows customers to purchase any volume of SAF irrespective of technical limitations. It is possible to reduce emissions by any desired quantity, without limitations such as blending limits or physical fuel consumption on a specific location.
Ready to start your SAF journey or looking for more information on Book & Claim? Fill in our contact form below.
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Jez Lowe
Sales Manager
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