A brand new 12 months typically begins with a easy query: How can we do higher? For companies, it’s a query that applies to virtually all the pieces, from product innovation to local weather influence—an space of accelerating urgency for a lot of.
The objective of attaining net-zero is now a staple of most companies’ annual plans, nonetheless the journey there’s typically difficult. It may be fraught with hidden trade-offs, making it troublesome for ESG leaders to know whether or not they’re really backing the fitting options in pursuit of their local weather objectives.
Take aviation, for instance. As one of many world’s most troublesome sectors to decarbonize, its 2.5% share of global CO2 emissions represents a significant problem for almost each company local weather plan. To unravel this, the trade developed an answer referred to as Sustainable Aviation Gasoline (SAF). Not like conventional jet gas comprised of crude oil, SAF is produced from renewable sources like used cooking oil, agricultural waste, and different plant-based supplies. Crucially, it’s designed to work with current plane engines, permitting airways to dramatically scale back their carbon footprint with out having to construct new planes.
Whereas promising a dramatic discount in air journey’s carbon footprint, the well-intentioned race to scale this “inexperienced” gas has created a harmful paradox, main firms down a path that dangers undermining the objectives they’re attempting to realize.
THE HIDDEN FLAW IN GREEN JET FUEL
SAF has rapidly change into the poster youngster for sustainable flight, because it cuts an plane’s lifecycle emissions by up to 80%. Nevertheless, the way in which we scale SAF issues simply as a lot because the volumes we obtain. Lots of right now’s biofuels depend on crops grown on arable land, creating direct competitors with meals manufacturing and rising the chance of deforestation and biodiversity loss.
That is the hidden flaw within the first wave of inexperienced jet gas. When the identical land that would develop meals or help forests is transformed to be used in jet gas, claims of sustainability change into much less convincing. This strategy dangers incentivizing options that scale back carbon emissions on spreadsheets whereas rising the social and environmental dangers in actuality.
On the identical time, nobody ought to underestimate the size of aviation’s problem. Trade roadmaps state that to align with net-zero targets by 2050, the sector will want lots of of thousands and thousands of tons of SAF per 12 months, in comparison with only some million tons produced per 12 months right now. We should select the fitting path to shut that hole over the following quarter-century.
The world generates an infinite quantity of waste yearly, from used cooking oil and animal fat to agricultural residues similar to corn cobs, straw, and empty fruit bunches. A lot of this materials is mismanaged, resulting in open burning, water contamination, and methane emissions as natural waste decomposes. Turning this waste into gas tackles two issues directly: it avoids methane and air pollution from unmanaged waste, and it displaces fossil fuels in sectors like aviation.
FROM PILOT TO SCALE: PROOF IN THE REAL WORLD
The important thing query for any sustainability answer is straightforward: Can it scale?
For waste-based SAF, the reply is more and more sure. At EcoCeres, our first large-scale renewable fuels plant in Jiangsu, China—which launched in 2021—demonstrated that industrial-scale manufacturing of SAF from 100% waste oils is commercially viable, with a capability of round 350,000 tons per 12 months.
Now, that mannequin is scaling. In January 2026, we formally opened our new manufacturing facility in Johor, Malaysia. With 420,000 tons of annual renewable gas capability, it’s one of many nation’s first devoted SAF amenities and it successfully doubles EcoCeres’ SAF manufacturing functionality. The plant makes use of 100% waste-based feedstocks, supported by a technique that secures used cooking oil and different residues throughout Asia. Its round mannequin is demonstrated by amenities licensed beneath main trade our bodies like ISCC (Worldwide Sustainability and Carbon Certification) and CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Discount Scheme for Worldwide Aviation). It has moved past pilots and is now delivering at industrial scale, proving the viability of really round SAF.
SAF AS A GATEWAY TO CREDIBLE NET-ZERO FOR BUSINESS
For a lot of world firms, enterprise journey and air freight kind a considerable share of their carbon emissions. With no scalable, credible supply of SAF, company net-zero pledges threat turning into aspirational relatively than actionable.
It’s clear {that a} extra subtle commonplace for inexperienced gas is required. Three easy standards can information higher selections:
- Feedstock integrity: Does the gas depend on 100% waste and residue-based feedstocks that don’t compete with meals or high-value ecosystems?
- Verified lifecycle influence: Does it obtain excessive lifecycle emissions reductions validated by strong, third-party certification schemes aligned with world requirements?
- Round and native co-benefits: Does the answer tangibly scale back native air pollution and create sustainable financial alternatives within the areas the place waste is collected?
CLOSE THE LOOP ON GLOBAL MOBILITY
The idea of a round financial system has efficiently reshaped numerous industries. For years, nonetheless, world aviation has remained a essential open loop. A really round, waste-based SAF mannequin may also help us lastly shut the loop on world mobility.
This isn’t a distant dream. As we’ve demonstrated, the know-how is already confirmed and working at scale. World research verify that underutilized waste streams can help the manufacturing of lots of of thousands and thousands of tons of sustainable gas, greater than sufficient to bridge the present provide hole. As extra of the world’s waste is introduced into productive use, the thought of flying on round gas strikes from promising pilot to sensible actuality.
For the enterprise leaders and ESG groups asking, “How can we do higher?” this presents a transparent and actionable path. By championing a better commonplace for the fuels they endorse, they may also help remodel one of many world’s most troublesome local weather challenges right into a story of innovation and alternative. If we will flip the world’s waste into the world’s jet gas, then each enterprise journey, cargo, and journey could be a part of the answer, not the issue.
Matti Lievonen is CEO of EcoCeres.
