Signature Aviation has received the Green Power Leadership Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), highlighting a commitment to renewable energy and sustainable practices. To date, Signature Aviation meets 100% of its electricity needs through a mixed portfolio that prioritizes geographic proximity between power generation and operational use. NATA’s Juliet Jordan recently sat down with Heather Frost, Signature’s Director of Environmental and Sustainability Programs, to discuss the Green Power Leadership Award and her advice for fellow aviation professionals eager to enhance sustainability efforts.
The award began with Signature’s collaboration with the EPA Green Power Partnership, a program that encourages organizations to voluntarily use renewable power. Signature developed a green power sustainability strategy by building solar where appropriate, purchasing renewable energy directly from utilities, and purchasing renewable energy credits to cover their remaining usage.
Collaboration with industry leaders, such as Rampmaster, has also been instrumental as Signature works to bring transformative ground support vehicles to market like the U.S. industry’s first zero-emission, full-electric, 5,000-gallon jet refueler truck.
“The most important aspect of a sustainability program or strategy is to take action,” said Frost when asked how other aviation businesses can advance their sustainability programs and practices. “The NATA Sustainability Standard provides a concise framework for meaningful action. Identifying an area in which you are able to take action provides a building block for great achievements.
“Joining the USEPA Green Power Partnership was another step that provided Signature guidance and support to embrace greater challenges and focus on making more meaningful commitments in the green power space,” Frost continued. “Sustainability does not culminate in a single moment of success. Signature continues to embrace the sustainability journey, focused on those efforts necessary to address climate impacts associated with the aviation industry.”
Frost also discussed opportunities for the industry as a whole to improve its utilization of renewable energy. Global carbon impacts require technology to advance new and better solutions, and collaboration plays a huge role in helping businesses establish goals and incentives in their future planning.
Where does Signature see itself in the future of sustainability? Frost said that the EPA Green Power Leadership Award is a step in the right direction. Various efforts to decarbonize its own activities—as well as the broader industry—strengthen the foundation of Signature’s environmental mission to lead the way in addressing global carbon impacts through carbon-neutral operations.
The focus on renewable power as part of this achievement led Signature to the Green Power Partnership program. Seeing business through an environmental lens is a focus that Signature models and encourages other aviation businesses to achieve. Small impacts play a substantial role in the long run.
Frost described Signature’s involvement in NATA as impactful in the sustainability journey. She pointed out, “The NATA Sustainability Standard provided a great entry to formalize our sustainability initiatives and establish targets and metrics for improvement. The program allowed us to identify hurdles in advancing to higher tiers of certification, rise to the challenge, and achieve those objectives. The Standard demonstrated the importance and the benefit of taking action toward ambitious internal and external climate goals. We are proud of our sustainability achievements as part of the NATA program and how these achievements impact airports and communities.”
Signature continues to achieve the highest NATA Sustainability Standard tier, with their Vail location the first to achieve Tier 3 status in 2022. Signature Vail’s sustainability efforts have the effect of removing 678 metric tons of CO2 annually from Colorado skies, and Signature is committed to carbon-neutral operations every year going forward.
The journey toward sustainability is ongoing, and collective industry efforts can lead to meaningful change. By sharing knowledge, fostering collaboration, and committing to sustainable practices, aviation businesses can cooperatively contribute to a clean future for aviation.
For general press inquiries, contact Shannon Chambers at 703-298-1347 or schambers@nata.aero.
The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) has been the voice of aviation business for more than 80 years. Representing nearly 3,700 aviation businesses, NATA’s member companies provide a broad range of services to general aviation, the airlines and the military and NATA serves as the public policy group representing the interests of aviation businesses before Congress and the federal agencies.