2022

Sustainability Report

BA Better World – welcome on board our most important journey yet

In September 2021, we made a further commitment to put sustainability at the heart of our business as we launched our BA Better World programme, building on a long track record of leadership in aviation sustainability. This marked the beginning of a long-term programme to transform our airline. When we launched the programme, we said it was our most important journey yet and that remains true today.

Throughout the pandemic, our commitment to sustainability stayed front and centre of our business strategy. Our focus in 2022 was to communicate our strategy across all three elements of BA Better World – People, Planet and Responsible Business, raise awareness of what the programme was about to our customers and colleagues and deliver on our objectives.

We know we have more work to do, but I am delighted by what has been achieved in 2022, particularly when considering the challenges that the aviation industry faced as we emerged from the worst crisis in our history. 2022 also saw us grow the breadth and depth of the sustainability programme as we embedded it across the business.

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Here are some of our
key achievements in 2022:

  • We received the first supply of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) into our operation
    In April, we took our first-ever supply of UK-produced sustainable aviation fuel, made using sustainable waste feedstocks from Phillips 66. It’s now routinely delivered into Heathrow operations, so all British Airways flights departing there now fly using a small proportion of SAF. Our partnership with Phillips 66 delivered 9980 tonnes of SAF in 2022.
  • We launched our new CO2llaborate platform for customers
    We empowered our customers further, giving them more options to make sustainable choices when flying with us and introduced new, innovative and engaging channels that are easier-to-use. We launched our new CO2llaborate platform for corporate and direct customers in partnership with climate solutions provider Chooose. This allows customers to act on and address their carbon emissions by selecting their own mix of carbon products, which includes SAF, carbon offsets and certified carbon removals credits.
  • We invested in our future SAF supply
    We signed an agreement with our partners LanzaJet and Nova Pangaea Technologies to accelerate Project Speedbird, an initiative created by the companies in 2021 to develop cost-effective SAF for commercial use in the UK.
  • We continued to reduce and single-use plastics waste onboard
    We continued to reduce waste and single-use plastics onboard through various initiatives. This included the installation of new water taps in our lounges, saving approximately 1 million glass bottles a year, and the removal of plastic packaging from our World Traveller Plus blankets, saving 20 tonnes of single-use plastic in 2022.
  • We launched our BA Better World Community Fund
    We launched our BA Better World Community Fund to create more life-changing opportunities and to generate further positive impact in communities across the UK. In 2022, we raised £2,015,362 and supported 110 organisations and projects that align with all the elements of BA Better World including; community engagement, diversity, wellbeing, waste reduction, tackling climate change, promoting nature and biodiversity and engaging our colleagues in positive action.
  • We reached a Flying Start milestone
    We also reached a significant milestone for Flying Start, our charity partnership with Comic Relief, where our colleagues and customers have now raised £27 million since the partnership began in 2010.
  • We launched our reverse mentoring programme
    We completed a nine-month reverse mentoring programme, that saw our Management Committee mentored by a colleague from an ethnically diverse background. They shared their lived experience within our business, their career development and inclusion, to help us ensure that we’re raising awareness of colleague experiences and creating a culture which is inclusive and that improves diversity representation.
  • We relaunched our wellbeing roadshows and menopause support programme
    We also relaunched our wellbeing roadshows, which raise awareness across physical and mental wellbeing themes. In addition, we established a menopause support programme, funding professional advice and support for colleagues, which has been a huge success.

  • 9980

    Tonnes of Sustainable Aviation Fuel delivered

  • 150

    Tonnes of single-use plastics saved

  • £2,550,106

    Raised for UK communities' projects

  • 9

    Month reverse mentoring programme delivered

  • 540

    Colleagues registered for our menopause app, Peppy

Supporting UN Sustainable Development Goals to 2030

We’re aligned to the net zero vision of our parent company International Airlines Group (IAG) and two global frameworks, one of which is the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UN has 17 SDGs to support as part of the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We’ve identified 8 SDGs we’re focusing on which we believe can best influence change. You will notice the icons representing the SDGs throughout this report, which you can click on to learn more about what we’re doing within each SDG.

  • Good Health and Well-Being
  • Quality Education
  • Gender Equality
  • Affordable and Clean Energy
  • Decent Work and Economic Growth
  • Reduced Inequalities
  • Responsible Consumption and Production
  • Climate Action

Section 1

People Icon

People

We care about our people and value their contributions to our business. Creating a diverse and inclusive workplace contributes to a sense of wellbeing and belonging, enabling people to thrive.

Inclusion & Diversity

  • In 2022 we increased the representation of senior female leaders in our organisation to 38%.
  • We completed a nine-month reverse mentoring programme, matching our Management Committee with colleagues from diverse backgrounds to increase awareness of barriers that exist in the workplace.
  • We enhanced our family leave policies including maternity, adoption and paternity leave and updated our language in these policies to be gender neutral and inclusive.

Diversity & Inclusion

  • 38%

    Females in our senior roles

  • 9.6%

    Ethnic diversity representation at senior management level

Wellbeing

  • We launched our menopause strategy led by Menofriends, our colleague network group. We also introduced personalised menopause support from expert practitioners in partnership with Peppy, our menopause app, which supported 650 colleagues in 2022.
  • We extended our partnership with Unmind, offering all colleagues a free subscription to the market-leading mental wellbeing platform. More than 5,600 colleagues used the app in 2022.
  • We re-introduced our colleague health checks which focused on giving colleagues straightforward advice to help them make positive lifestyle changes. In total, 1,400 colleagues took part in these free health checks in 2022.

Wellbeing

  • 650

    Colleagues registered for our menopause app, Peppy

  • 5,600

    Colleagues signed up for our mental health app, Unmind

  • 1,400

    Colleagues took part in free health checks

Section 2

Planet Icon

Planet

At British Airways, we care about the impact of every flight. That’s why we’re driving urgent action towards net zero emissions. We have a long history of managing and reducing our carbon emissions and a clear roadmap to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, with ambitious short, medium and long-term initiatives to achieve our goals.

Climate

  • We took delivery of our first ever supply of UK-produced SAF, made using sustainable waste feedstocks from Phillips 66. Our partnership with Phillips 66 delivered 9,980 tonnes of SAF in 2022.
  • Through a variety of initiatives, we reduced our carbon intensity by 12% in 2022 to 89gCO2/pkm versus 2021, and by 7.48% compared to 2019.
  • We announced our support for two carbon removal projects, both of which were made available to customers to buy via our online tool, CO2llaborate.

Climate

  • 9980

    Tonnes of SAF delivered by Phillips 66

  • 12%

    Reduction in carbon intensity versus 2021

Resource and Compliance

  • We installed new Brita water taps in our Heathrow lounges, helping us save approximately 1 million glass bottles a year.
  • We removed the plastic wrapping from our World Traveller Plus cabin blankets and introduced new birchwood cutlery in our World Traveller cabin, saving a total of 150 tonnes of single-use plastics in 2022.
  • We recycled 2,684 tonnes of waste, amounting to 23% of our total waste and have plans in place to increase this further next year.

Resource

  • 1,000,123

    Glass bottles saved per year

  • 150

    Tonnes of single use plastic saved

  • 23%

    Of waste recycled in 2022

Section 3

Responsible Business Icon

Responsible Business

Robust business governance and commercial products that reflect our purpose & values & meaningful investment in communities we serve

Community

  • We launched our BA Better World Community Fund to channel direct funding from British Airways to a range of community projects in the UK that align with our BA Better World values. The fund also enables our colleagues and customers to donate to these UK based charities and projects through cash payments or Avios via Crowdfunder.
  • Since its launch, the fund has reached more than £760,000 from donations and funding on the BA Better World Community Fund platform.
  • In partnership with the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), we supported two emergency appeals supporting communities in crisis, including the Pakistan Floods Appeal and Ukraine Appeal.
  • Customer and colleague donations have now raised more than £27 million for Flying Start via our global charity partnership with Comic Relief – a collaboration that first began in 2010.

Community

  • £2,015,362

    Raised for the BA Better World Community Fund

  • 2

    Emergency appeals supported

  • £27,109,888

    Raised in partnership with Comic relief since its launch

Customer

  • We launched CO2llaborate, our new online platform enabling customers to address the carbon emissions from their flying.
  • It allows them to select to their own mix of carbon products (carbon offsets, carbon removals and SAF) before, during or after their flight.
  • On short-haul flights we enabled customers to contribute to high-quality verified carbon offsetting projects via our own board food menu, the Speedbird Café, directly from their seat.
  • On all flights, we added the CO2llaborate carbon calculator to our onboard Wi-Fi portal, allowing customers to act on their carbon emissions onboard, with no need to pay for Wi-Fi access.
  • We also continued to offset the carbon emissions on our flights within the UK on behalf of our customers – an initiative we launched in January 2020.

Customer

  • 42.86%

    increase in customers acting on their carbon emissions

  • 46%

    of colleagues are aware of our BA Better World strategy, a 31% increase from 2021

Looking ahead to the future

Our focus in 2023 and beyond is to continue to embed BA Better World in every part of our business. Our aim is to continue to mobilise, energise and support our colleagues across the business to create a culture of sustainability that’s visible to our customers.

It’s going to be an exciting year and we look forward to continuing to collaborate with our customers, colleagues and partners. Thank you to everyone who’s played a part so far – we couldn’t do this without you.

Carrie Harris
Director of Sustainability, British Airways

Photo of Carrie Harris

Specific plans for 2023 include:

  • Embed sustainability across the whole business, ensuring our colleagues consider sustainability in all aspects of their roles
  • Continue to review our net zero plans, to aim higher and move faster wherever possible
  • Continue to improve information and the products available for our customers to help them make more informed choices when flying
  • Expand our colleagues’ engagement in our BA Better World Community Fund, including through a new colleague volunteering programme
  • Grow and build on our colleague engagement, wellbeing and inclusion and diversity programmes