Dnata investing US$100m in green operations
Above:
The dnata Travel Group in the UK will operate a fully green fleet by 2024.
Courtesy dnata
The company’s ongoing investment in infrastructure, equipment and process improvement will support it to achieve its strategic objectives and reduce its carbon footprint by 20% by 2024, and by 50% by 2030.
Steve Allen, CEO of dnata Group, said: “We’ve been making great progress on reducing our carbon footprint, minimising waste and reducing energy and water consumption across our operations. We will further increase our investments and efforts in strong cooperation with our partners to achieve our targets and preserve the environment for current and future generations.”
In recent years dnata has significantly invested in advanced technologies to optimise resources and improve operational efficiency across its facilities. It installed renewable energy features, such as solar panels, heat recovery units and electric vehicle charging, at its existing facilities in the UK, Singapore and Ireland. The company will also incorporate carbon reduction initiatives in the construction and operation of its recently announced new cargo centres in The Netherlands and Iraq.
Choosing green options is a prime consideration in dnata’s fleet planning, too. It has increased investments in electric and hybrid ramp, ground support (GSE) and forklift equipment, and refurbished existing GSE with new technologies to further decrease emissions and update them to the latest safety and quality standards. As a result, dnata became the first ground handler to successfully complete green aircraft turnarounds using only zero-emission GSE in the USA and UAE.
Dnata’s catering team has invested in process improvement to minimise its environmental footprint. It has been working closely with many of its airline customers to analyse consumption trends and use predictive data to optimise the loading of F&B for in-flight catering. Analysis of on-board data not only reduces food waste but also fuel burn associated with carrying excess weight. In addition, where possible dnata catering sources and supplies local produce to reduce the food miles associated with menus.
Dnata has also taken initiatives across its business units to conserve water consumption and recycle materials, such as paper, plastic, cardboard, wood, glass, metal, used cooking and mineral oils. Earlier this year, the company committed to reducing its waste to landfill by 20% by 2024.
Working towards sustainable travel, dnata has embedded its environmental framework across its broad-spanning Travel businesses, aiming to empower customers to make better travel choices. Its corporate services include hybrid event solutions, sustainable travel policy guidance as well as carbon emission monitoring and reporting, aligned to global standards.
Dnata Travel Group in the UK has invested in green technologies and introduced new business practices to improve environmental efficiency. It switched to renewable energy to take all electricity from green sources at all of its offices, cut out single-use plastic (SUP) from its operations, reduced paper consumption by four million pages annually through its ‘paperless office’ initiative, and implemented a zero to landfill policy to ensure that all non-recyclable waste is sent to energy recovery facilities for processing. Furthermore, it replaced 80% of its fleet with electric or hybrid cars with a target to operate a fully green fleet by 2024.
Dnata engages and mobilises its employees through its corporate social responsibility programme, dnata4good, to make a positive difference. This May, hundreds of dnata employees around the world teamed up and took part in the company initiative ‘dnata cleans the world’. Dnata’s volunteers cleaned beaches, rivers, canals and parks in dozens of countries across the globe.
The Group offers ground handling, cargo, travel, catering and retail services in 36 countries across six continents. In the financial year 2021-22, dnata’s customer-oriented teams handled over 527,000 aircraft turns, moved three million tonnes of cargo, uplifted 39.9 million meals, and recorded a total transaction value (TTV) of travel services of US$ 632 million.
