Delta Air Lines
CEF Lead Executives
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AMELIA DELUCAList Item 1
Chief Sustainability Officer
Prior to her appointment as Chief Sustainability Officer, Amelia served as Vice President, International Customer Experience and Partner Sustainability. In that role, Amelia led cross-divisional efforts to deliver a consistent premium customer experience across Delta’s partners. She also supported the development of Delta's partner sustainability strategy across Delta’s global partner network to enhance and accelerate the alliance’s leading sustainability position and provide greater collective impact across the Delta network. During her 17-year career with Delta, Amelia has held varied leadership positions within the Sustainability, Global Sales, Revenue Management and Network Planning teams and has been based in Mexico City, Minneapolis, Amsterdam, New York City and Atlanta. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and has her M.B.A. from the University of Amsterdam. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband and two daughters.
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GAIL GRIMMETT
SVP, Sustainabiliity Performance & Strategic Partnerships
Gail leads Delta’s efforts to drive forward invative, sustainable solutions that will empower the next chapter of aviation, which includes next generation techlogies, partnerships with educational institutions and other corporations. Prior to joining Delta, she was the Chief Experience Officer for Wheels Up overseeing the member experience, including event programming, marketing, public relations, social and digital channel performance, as well as member experience and member benefits. Gail has spent 20 years at Delta Air Lines, serving in multiple key executive functions including SVP of Global New York, SVP of Pricing and Yield Management and Managing Director of Investor Relations. She served as Goverr Andrew Cuomo’s appointee on both the New York State Tourism Board and the New York City Regional Ecomic Development Council for a decade. For six years straight, Gail was consecutively named among the Top 50 Most Powerful Women in New York by Crain’s Business. Gail holds an undergraduate degree from Indiana University and an MBA from George Washington University.
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DAN KETCHEL
Director Sustainability Partnerships & Performance
Sustainability Goals
Current Sustainability Goals
- Maintain carbon neutrality across global airline operations (achieved in March 2020)
- Electrify 25% of ground support equipment by 2022
- Double spending with Black-owned businesses by 2025
- Use sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) for 10% of jet fuel by 2030 with 5% achieving 85% lower life cycle GHG emissions than conventional jet fuel
- Reduce life cycle jet fuel GHG emissions on a per revenue ton kilometer basis by 2035 ( 2019 baseline)
- Announced intention to set science-based targets to improve emissions intensity no later than 2035 and achieve net zero GHG emissions no later than 2050 (2019 baseline).
- Reduce climate impacts from flying and embedding sustainability in all Delta operations through the Delta Sustainable Skies Lab by facilitating internal innovation as well as cultivating innovative partnerships
Latest Sustainability Reporting
(May 2023)
Highlights
- Reduced emissions intensity by 0.56% in 2022 compared to 2019;
- Retired and replaced over 650 Ground Service Equipment (GSE) with electrified GSE and achieved 25% electrification of GSE;
- Saved 10 million gallons (37.9 million liters) of fuel through innovations in flight routing, reducing drag, and weight reduction;
- Procured 1.6 million gallons (6.1 million liters) of sustainable aviation fuel, avoiding 15,589 million tons of CO2 equivalent;
- Integrated more than half of top 200 Supply Chain vendors into the EcoVadis ESG ratings platform in 2022;
- Spent nearly $493 million with Black-owned businesses in the U.S. in 2022;
- Increased percentage of Black officers and director-level employees from 5.8% in 2020 to 8.5% in 2022;
- Increased percentage of women in Vice President and above category from 30.0% in 2021 to 34.3% in 2022;
- Received numerous recognitions, including Business Travel News #1 Airline (2022); Newsweek’s Best Customer Service (2023); and listed 98 of 500 in Forbe’s 2022 Best Employers for Diversity list.
Recent News
2023
Announced it is starting a trial of new paper cups to help eliminate single-use plastic cups on Delta flights. The new cups are designed by Delta to work with hot, cold, and alcoholic beverages. Once approved and adopted across the Delta network, paper cups will help eliminate nearly 7 million pounds of single-use plastics on board annually, the company says. (Dec 2023)
GREATER MSP PARTNERSHIP — Through the Greater MSP Partnership, CEF members Bank of America, Delta Air Lines, and Ecolab, along with Xcel Energy, have established the first large-scale sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) hub in the U.S. (in Minnesota). It will have a multi-phased approach, bringing SAF into Minnesota (as early as 2025), engaging SAF producers, and expanding its coalition. (Sept 2023)
Announced its roadmap to more sustainable travel and net-zero emissions by 2050, including (March 2023):
- 3% operational fuel savings by 2035 and 5% by 2050, plus an 80% and 100% reduction in addressable warming contrails respectively;
- 100% preferred vendors with net-zero plans by 2030 and 100% net-zero supply chain by 2050;
- 10% sustainable aviation fuel by 2030, 35% by 2035, and 95+% by 2050;
- Waste diversion from landfill of 65% by 2035 and 100% by 2050, and minimizing single-use plastics onboard by 2025.
Announced it will launch the Delta Sustainable Skies Lab, an innovation lab to accelerate research, design and testing for a more sustainable future of air travel. The lab will focus both on reducing climate impacts from flying and embedding sustainability in all Delta operations. It will pursue these goals both by facilitating internal innovation as well as cultivating innovative partnerships. (Jan 2023)
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2022
Signed an agreement with Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) maker Gevo for approximately 75 million gallons of its bio-based SAF annually for seven years, with an anticipated 2026 start. The deal significantly expands the market for the nascent fuel, spurring production levels that will be necessary for Delta to meet its goal of fueling 10% of its operation with SAF by 2030. (April 2022)
2021
Signed a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) offtake agreement worth over $1 billion with renewable fuels company
Aemetis, wherein
Aemetis will deliver 250 million gallons of blended fuel containing SAF over 10 years. The fuel is expected to be available in 2024. (Oct 2021)
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Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM)
— The taskforce has formed an
independent Board of Directors to govern voluntary carbon markets, with
22 members
representing 12 countries (40% in the Global South); the NGO, academic, corporate, and financial sectors; Indigenous people; and local communities.
The Board will be supported by TSVCM’s founding sponsors, an Executive Secretariat, an Expert Panel, a Senior Advisory Council, and a
Member
consultation group of 250 organizations (including CEF members
Bank of America, BlackRock, BloombergNEF, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Boeing, Chevron, Delta, Google, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Siemens,
and Unilever). (Sept 2021)
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Joined the
Race to Zero and
committed to setting a 2050 net-zero target and interim targets through the SBTi. It also
joined the steering committee of the
Clean Skies for Tomorrow Coalition, which is developing the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) market, and sent a letter of intent to
become the first airline in the
LEAF Coalition, a public-private effort to mobilize $1 billion to end tropical deforestation by 2030. (Sept 2021)
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The Biden administration announced a series of actions to fulfill its new goal of reducing emissions in the aviation sector by 20% by 2030, including (Sept 2021):
- A government-led challenge to supply at least 3 billion gallons of SAF to US aircraft operators annually by 2030 and sufficient SAF to meet 100% of demand by 2050. Alongside this announcement, Airlines for America—whose members include CEF members Delta, JetBlue, and UPS—pledged to work to meet the goal.
- Up to $4.3 billion of new and ongoing funding for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) projects
- An SAF tax credit
CHEVRON / DELTA / GOOGLE —
Signed a memorandum of understanding to
measure sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) emissions and create a “more transparent model” for analyzing potential emissions reductions. The Chevron Products Company division will produce a test batch of SAF and sell it to Delta’s Los Angeles International Airport hub, with Google Cloud building an analytics framework to analyze the emissions data. (Sept 2021)
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Delta Air Lines launched “Flight to Net Zero,”
a new initiative to advance clean air travel and accelerate the reduction of carbon emissions including new products and standards. (June 2021)
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Delta Air Lines announced a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) agreement with CWT to purchase SAF to cover the projected fuel usage from all of their clients on June 5, World Environment Day. (June 2021) MORE »
Delta Air Lines launched “Gaining Altitude: Conversations Worth Navigating,”
a podcast hosted by Delta CEO Ed Bastian to hold one-on-one conversations with leaders across industries about significant global topics, including: servant leadership; entrepreneurship; sustainability; mental health; and diversity, equity and inclusion. (May 2021)
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Delta Air Lines announced a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) agreement with BCD Travel USA to purchase SAF to cover employee travel. (May 2021) MORE »
Delta Air Lines announced a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) agreement with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited to purchase SAF to reduce emissions from employee business travel. (April 2021) MORE »
Delta Air Lines announced plans to spend over $30 million to purchase verified offsets to mitigate 13 million metric tons of emissions generated since its March 2020 carbon-neutral pledge. It also plans to replace 10% of its traditional jet fuel with sustainable aviation fuel by 2030. (March 2021)
Delta Air Lines announced a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) agreement with Deloitte to purchase SAF to offset its business travel emissions of approximately 1,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. (February 2021) MORE »
2020
Delta Cargo joined the Sustainable Air Freight Alliance (SAFA), a business-led collaborative initiative aiming to reduce its members’ environmental footprint. (July 2020)
Delta Air Lines announced a 10-year, $1 billion commitment to “mitigate all emissions from its global business” beginning March 2020 to become the world’s first carbon neutral airline. (Feb 2020)