Sustainability program and global award - for the first time in the air cargo industry

TIACA launches a Sustainability Program for the air cargo industry with support from CHAMP Cargosystems 

Miami, FL, USA and Luxembourg, 18 June 2019 – The International Air Cargo Association is establishing a new working group to define and deliver a Sustainability Program for the air cargo industry. To support the initiative, TIACA has signed a long-term partnership agreement with CHAMP Cargosystems.  

On the photo from left to right: Sebastiaan Scholte - Chairman of TIACA; Arnaud Lambert – CEO of CHAMP Cargosystems; Steven Polmans– Vice Chairman of TIACA; Photo Credits: Georges Huberty

The concept and growing importance of sustainability is everywhere in our current society and is defined through the following interconnected domains or pillars: environment, economic and social.  

One of the highlights of the project is launching a yearly Air Cargo Sustainability award, starting at the association`s Executive Summit later this year.  The main objective of the Competition and the TIACA “Air Cargo Sustainability” Award is to generate ideas and appreciate and stimulate sustainability initiatives in the air cargo sector. The winner will be announced in November 2019 in Budapest, Hungary. The recognition will be on a global level and it will be organized for the first time in the industry.  

To accomplish that, TIACA and CHAMP will work with members, partners, and industry representatives to establish a common vision on sustainability. Together they will develop, promote, and support several campaigns to tackle challenges connected to the three pillars of Sustainability.

"Sustainable development means being able to meet the business needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to find solutions to their own commercial challenges,” states Steven Polmans, upcoming chairman of TIACA, and adds: “In the aviation and air cargo logistics sector, in common with all parts of our society, sustainability has an increasingly important role to play. The development of long-term strategies and investment to achieve a sustainable industry is key to guaranteeing the future of air cargo and TIACA, as the only organization representing all sectors of the supply chain, is in a unique position to drive that development.”

A Sustainability Committee will be created by TIACA. Its role will be to act as a working group, which will build the Program and monitor delivery of the initiatives. The Association has pledged to organize at least one panel discussion or presentation focused on sustainability at each of its events. 

The call for nominations and details of the criteria and judging system will be announced in the following weeks.

“CHAMP Cargosystems is extremely pleased to establish this sustainable initiative in partnership with TIACA,” comments Arnaud Lambert, CEO (Chief Executive Officer) at CHAMP Cargosystems, and continues: “Our commitment stands to jointly create a program that will have a positive global outcome − first for society and then for business. Sustainability is a subject often considered in the development of our IT solutions like CO2 emission calculator solutions, integration, or paper-free solutions for the air cargo business but is definitely not limited to this only. We are looking forward to defining and implementing strategies for achieving positive and substantial results in Optimizing our Environmental Footprint (OEF) and minimizing logistics-related emissions or waste, for example. All this can only be done in synergetic collaboration with all industry players. Ultimately, each of us is responsible for tomorrow’s world and we are accountable for the future state of the Earth − not only for us, but also for those who will inherit it.”