The Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group (SAFUG; www. safug. org) is an airline-led industry working group. Current airline members include Air France, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Cargolux, Gulf Air, Japan Airlines, KLM, SAS, and Virgin Atlantic Airways. Boeing and Honeywell’s UOP, a refining technology developer, are associate members. More and more airlines are joining, such as Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, TUIfly, and Virgin Blue.

Since its launch in the fall of 2008, SAFUG has established a foundation of airlines, environmental organizations, research projects, and practices and prin­ciples that can help accelerate the commercialization and availability of sustainable biofuels.

SAFUG members have pledged to work through the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) — a global multi-stakeholder initiative, consisting of leading environmental organizations, financiers, biofuel developers, biofuel-interested petroleum companies, the transportation sector, developing-world poverty alleviation associations, research entities, and governments (see Chapter 7). All RSB and SAFUG members agree that working across sectors, interests, and regions is the best approach to ensure the next generations of biofuels are developed in a sus­tainable manner.

Strategic efforts by SAFUG members and RSB stakeholders are focused on making renewable fuel sources available that can reduce greenhouse gas emis­sions, while lessening commercial aviation’s dependence on fossil fuels and potentially reducing aviation sector exposure to fuel price volatility. In addition to previously announced research projects on algae and Jatropha, the group will also launch a sustainability assessment of halophytes, a class of plants that thrive in saltwater habitat, later this year.

To be eligible for membership, SAFUG members must subscribe to sustain­ability criteria that stipulate that:

• Jet fuel plant sources should be developed in a manner that is non-competitive with food and where biodiversity impacts are minimized; in addition, the cultivation of those plant sources should not jeopardize drinking water supplies.

• Total lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from plant growth, harvesting, processing, and end use should be significantly reduced compared to those associated with jet fuels from fossil sources.

• In developing economies, development projects should include provisions or outcomes that improve the socioeconomic conditions for small-scale farmers who rely on agriculture to feed them and their families, and that do not require the involuntary displacement of local populations.

• High conservation value areas and native ecosystems should not be cleared and converted for jet fuel plant source development.