Honeywell Aerospace Attends A Royal Roundtable For Climate Change

The world is waking up to the realization that climate change has become one of the biggest challenges facing our planet’s future. It’s a challenge that is forcing industries, including aviation, to find ways of operating that place environmental stewardship front and center.

Demand for air travel is rising rapidly, with the number of air passengers expected to double by 2037. The pressure is now on for the industry to come together to identify new opportunities for making this critical global industry more sustainable.

This was the objective of a World Economic Forum roundtable event, hosted by H.R.H The Prince of Wales in London in February. Jim Currier, Aerospace President for EMEAI, attended alongside senior representatives from airlines, airports, energy companies, aircraft manufactures, innovators and the financial community, to design pathways to accelerate the energy transition of the aviation industry.

The roundtable was part of the Sustainable Markets Initiative, under which The Prince of Wales has created a Sustainable Markets Council comprised of global leaders from the public, private and philanthropic sectors. The Council serves as a “brain trust” working to accelerate the transition to sustainable markets and a net-zero global economy.

During the roundtable, attendees discussed a suite of solutions to accelerate the energy transition of the aviation industry, from technology innovations, to attracting financial investment, policy changes and consumer empowerment. You can find out more about the action areas identified during the roundtable in this video.

As part of the Initiative, the Council put forth a 10-point plan to accelerate the transition to sustainable markets which align well to many of the ongoing technology advancements at Honeywell. Innovation, Systems and Solutions are three of the 10-points where Honeywell’s focus will help improve today’s solutions while investing in future green technology.

Between 2004 and 2019, Honeywell’s sustainability program has reduced our greenhouse gas intensity by more than 90% and increased our energy  efficiency by about 70%.

We apply these same environmental rigors to our product design and development too. In the case of Aerospace, we have software that brings together flight variables, such as flight plans, weather, navigation charts, and aircraft performance, in one place. This allows operators to get a comprehensive look at fleet performance to increase efficiencies and save thousands of tons of fuel annually when compared to previous year’s data.

We continue research and development into electric and hybrid-electric propulsion to create a new paradigm for urban air mobility that is safe, quiet, efficient and clean.  And with over 100 years of experience making aircraft parts, we know how to drive out weight from products – critical for the introduction of lighter platforms that require less fuel to operate.

Finally, our Green Jet Fuel, which can be made from a variety of sustainable feedstocks, can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65-85% compared with petroleum-based fuels, and acts as a drop-in replacement that requires no changes to aircraft technology or fuel infrastructure.

Through innovations such as these, the aviation industry has a clear and real ability to meet its climate objectives, and play its part in creating a future for our world that is cleaner and more sustainable.