Delta Air Lines
CEF Lead Executives
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AMELIA DELUCAList Item 1
Chief Sustainability Officer
Amelia leads the airline on its journey to reach net-zero emissions by 2050
and deliver a more sustainable and elevated travel experience along the way. Prior to her appointment as Chief Sustainability Officer, Amelia served as VP, 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 Sustainability Officer
Gail leads Delta’s efforts to drive forward innovative, sustainable solutions that will empower the next chapter of aviation, which includes next-generation technologies and 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 Governor Andrew Cuomo’s appointee on both the New York State Tourism Board and the New York City Regional Economic 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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SANGITA SHARMA
Director, Sustainability Skies Lab
Sangita is the Director of the Sustainable Skies Lab, a first-of-its-kind airline innovation lab to accelerate research, design and testing for a more sustainable future of air travel. The Lab collaborates with partners across the industry as well as within Delta’s operation to foster transformational change. Sangita has spent over a decade at Delta, where she’s held roles across the operating business units, leveraging data to ask questions and drive innovation and process improvement. In that time, she has developed a roadmap to using advanced decision science across the operation, built out cleanliness quality assurance programs during the peak of COVID, reduced airport process seams with Joint Venture partners, and fostered enterprise innovation as a founding member multiple internal business resource groups. Sangita holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from Emory University.
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DAN KETCHEL
Director Sustainability Partnerships & Performance
Latest Sustainability Reporting
(May 2024)
Highlights
- Reduced jet fuel-related greenhouse gas emissions 3.2% per revenue ton kilometer in 2023 (2019 baseline).
- Improved fleet-wide fuel efficiency 5.5% since 2019.
- Saved 21 million gallons of fuel in 2023 (compared to 2019) through initiatives like enhanced routing and weight reductions.
- Delivered 3.5 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), more than double the amount in 2022.
- Helped establish a Minnesota SAF Hub, collaborating across the value chain to scale SAF.
- Acquired 43 next-generation aircraft as of the end of 2023, achieving, on average, 28% greater fuel efficiency per seat mile than aircraft retired since 2019.
- Has electrified 31% of its critical ground service equipment since 2020.
- Spent $559 million with Black-owned businesses in 2023.
- 50% of the top 600 company leaders (officers and directors) were women or racially/ethnically diverse.
Recent News
2025
Delta Air Lines is partnering with startup JetZero in the latter’s effort to create a more fuel efficient blended-wing-body (BWB) commercial jet. This design is expected to be up to 50% more fuel-efficient with current engine technology, while reducing noise and maintaining a similar range and seat capacity as today’s mid-range international jet. Delta will support JetZero with operational expertisethrough its Sustainable Skies Lab to bring the aircraft to commercial viability. (March 2025)
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)