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Qantas Sustainability Actions

Managing climate risk

Qantas recognises human-induced climate change as a significant issue for the aviation industry. We support the world-wide priority of limiting global temperature rise to below two degrees above pre-industrial levels. Aviation has been at the forefront of the global business response to climate change, becoming the first industry to voluntarily commit to emissions targets out as far as 2050. We're playing an active role in setting and meeting these ambitious targets and we’re guided by a simple philosophy to meet them: measure, reduce, offset and influence. In line with this, the Qantas Group committed in 2017 to align our climate change-related disclosures to the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Since then, the Group has been working to implement these across the core elements of climate-related disclosures: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. Over this past year, the Group partnered with external consultants and climate change experts to further understand the physical and transition risks as well as emerging opportunities that may arise from a changing climate.

Reducing emissions

In a pre-COVID environment, the Qantas Group would operate over 300 aircraft across around 1,500 flights using some 14 million litres of fuel each day. As a result, over 95 per cent of our overall emissions come directly from jet fuel. The Group saw a strong performance in fuel efficiency over the first eight months of FY20 as a result of the numerous fuel efficiency measures deployed across our operations. It was expected to further improve with the retirement of Boeing 747 aircraft and continued effort in fuel efficiency initiatives across the group. Due to COVID-19, there has been a dramatic and unprecedented decrease in traffic, not only in terms of the number of flights operated but also in terms of reduced passenger load. The cumulative effect of both these trends has had a significant impact on our overall FY20 fuel efficiency. COVID-19 accelerated the retirement of the 747s, which will have a positive impact on fuel efficiency across the network and when international flying returns it will be on the more efficient 787 aircraft. We're collaborating closely with other airlines, industry, scientific agencies and leading environmental NGOs to accelerate the development of aviation biofuels. In 2019, we committed $50 million to the development and increased uptake of a sustainable aviation fuels industry both in Australia and at our international ports. In 2012 we made history with Australia's first commercial biofuel flights, and in January 2018 we operated the first dedicated biofuel flight between the United States and Australia, a 15-hour trans-Pacific flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne.

Carbon offsetting

Qantas has been offsetting carbon pollution for more than a decade - with our 'tick-the-box' to Fly Carbon Neutral offsetting program being one of the largest of any airline. Carbon offsetting is a key tool in aviation’s global transition to a low carbon economy, and in meeting our commitments of capping emissions at 2019 levels and reaching net zero emissions by 2050. Since 2007, Qantas has offset its own ground and corporate travel emissions. In 2019, we launched the biggest changes to the Fly Carbon Neutral program since its inception a decade ago. Qantas Frequent Flyer members and Qantas Business Rewards customers now earn 10 Qantas Points for every dollar spent on offsetting, and Qantas is matching dollar for dollar every contribution a customer makes to offset their emissions on a passenger flight, effectively doubling the program.

Waste, energy and water

In the process of carrying 50 million people each year, we deal with more than 30,000 tonnes of total waste. That’s the same weight as about eighty 747 jumbos. It is quite literally a waste and we have a responsibility to our customers, shareholders and the community to reduce it. In FY19, we announced our commitment to reducing 75% of Qantas Group onshore waste to landfill (including quarantine) by 2021. That includes the removal of 100 million single use plastic items. Since then, we have achieved several milestones including rolling out organic waste disposal pathways at our onshore lounges, removing almost 10 million single-use plastics items from our service, introducing compostable packaging to our inflight service and completing the world’s first zero waste flight. The Qantas Group was on track to achieve its waste targets however several waste initiatives have been temporarily suspended due to COVID-19. The Group is reviewing its waste strategy to ensure that the principles of a circular economy remain central to our sustainability strategy and the Group’s recovery.

Protecting against pollution

PFAS is a group of chemicals that have been used in a range of industrial and consumer products for many decades, including fire-fighting foams. There is an increasing move away from these chemicals because they may pose a potential risk to human health and the environment. As part of our movement away from PFAS, we have installed aviation accredited PFAS free fire-fighting foam in the majority of Qantas Group sites. A spill of fire-fighting chemicals (containing PFAS) at our Brisbane hangar in April 2017 fell well below the environmental standards that the Qantas Group sets itself and has been followed by an extensive clean-up and investigation, in collaboration with Queensland and federal regulators as well as Brisbane Airport. Qantas has commenced proceedings in the Supreme Court of NSW against Jones, Lang, LaSalle to recover the costs arising from the spill. All Qantas aircraft meet or exceed ICAO's aircraft noise pollution standards.The Qantas Group approach to aircraft noise pollution management is consistent with four elements that have been recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the international body responsible for setting and recommending aircraft noise standards and practices.

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