Something old, something new…

…something green, something blue. One of TIACA’s core focus points is Sustainability, and next week’s Executive Summit in Brussels will be covering both green and blue, as interested parties are updated on the association’s BlueSky program and invited to vote for the winner of the Start-up/Small Business Sustainability Award. It has also launched its latest Sustainability Survey.

TIACA’s 5th Sustainability Awards are just around the corner, and the association has just announced the finalists in the Start-up/Small Business category. The deadline for applications was 11OCT23. All submissions were carefully judged by a team of 5 industry leaders and sustainability champions, who considered the projects based on various set criteria such as impact on society and industry, ease of implementation, innovation, and what TIACA calls “the wow factor”. The next step now is that the finalists will present their projects at the upcoming TIACA event, which happens to be the Executive Summit in Brussels, 06-08NOV23. Following their presentations, the Executive Summit audience will be invited to place their votes, thus establishing the winner there and then.

Many ideas out there
Steven Polmans, TIACA Chair, pointed to the large range of ideas that had been sent in, though exact numbers have not been revealed: “We had a lot of great submissions in the Start-up/Small Business category, and I am sure it was hard for the jury to decide on just three finalists. We are looking forward to the presentations from Pledge, Regent Craft and VRR during the Executive Summit and can't wait for the audience to select the winner in this category.”
Chris McDermott, CEO of CHAMP Cargosystems, which has sponsored the Awards since they first began in 2019, agreed: “We were pleased to see so many strong submissions in this year's Air Cargo Sustainability Awards in the Start-Up and Small Business category, and the jury has worked hard to select our three impressive finalists. I wish them the best of luck with their presentations at the Executive Summit.”

So, who are they?
As in previous years, the three finalists stand to win a first prize of USD 10,000 in cash, with the two runners up receiving USD 2,500 each. Of the three finalists, two are newcomers and one is a repeat finalist: the Dutch ULD developer, VRR, was already shortlisted back in 2020, at the time with its first (and the world’s first!) foldable ULD, the Air7 (similar to the AKE). It is back again in 2023, since with VRR Collapsible, it now offers a family of foldable/inflatable ULDs: AAY, AAX and AKE – which offer a workable solution to global ULD imbalance issues. The newcomer finalists are UK-based climate tech company, Pledge, which has been gaining a lot of traction in the media recently with its Freight Emissions Calculation and Offsetting tools, and a more unusual entry from a new (2020-founded) American company, Regent Craft, that builds sea-gliders to enable emission-free cargo transportation between coastal cities. Its Viceroy aircraft can carry a payload of 1.6 tons and is planned to come to market in 2025.
An interesting mix, therefore, of ULD, tech and futuristic transport vessels. Who would you vote for?

Fourth Sustainability Survey
It is not just TIACA’s Sustainability Awards that have established themselves as a professional platform for solutions that are perhaps not so much in the foreground, but also its Sustainability Survey that helps provide transparency on the industry’s progress in this area and promote positive action (supported by its BlueSky Program). TIACA has now launched its 4th consecutive Annual Air Cargo Sustainability Survey, and urges all stakeholders within the industry to respond, “to allow us to get a full understanding of the work we are doing. […] The Annual Air Cargo Sustainability Survey was launched in 2020, as part of TIACA's Sustainability program that is aimed at uniting the air cargo industry towards a common vision, goals and action plan, drive and accelerate sustainability progress,” the press release explains, recalling TIACA’s 3+2 vision: people, planet, prosperity + innovation & partnerships.

The survey results along with sustainability recommendations will be published in the 2023 Insights Report, adding another year’s progress measurement to the annual benchmark monitor.

Participate in the survey!
Steven Polmans, TIACA Chair, stated: “We are proud to see the results of the industry's investment into sustainability. Through TIACA's Sustainability Program, we are able to shine a spotlight on all of the work we, as an industry, are doing through the Insights Report, the Sustainability Awards and, of course, BlueSky. It is great to see the industry unite for such an important mission.”
Glyn Hughes, Director General, concluded: “It is vital that we track and monitor collective industry efforts towards sustainability to not just see the push towards a sustainable future, but also to tell the world about all of the ways we are moving forward. The Insights Report allows us to do this and with the feedback we get from the industry through the survey, we can do just that. We are looking forward to sharing the results with you early next year.”

Do your bit and fill it out!

Brigitte Gledhill

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