The Aerospace & Defense sector faces significant challenges in addressing Scope 3 emissions, which account for the largest proportion of overall emissions and involve a large number of stakeholders. However, initiatives such as creating smart manufacturing facilities and improving power usage can help to reduce emissions across facilities and assets. Without concrete actions to reduce emissions, the sector could be responsible for 22% of global emissions by 2050. Aviation alone contributes 5% of the total warming effect causing climate change, and 2% of global human-made CO2 emissions. The largest emissions come from vehicle, aircraft, ship, and passenger-fleet emissions, while purchased electricity, on-site fuel consumption at federal facilities, and other sources account for the rest. Despite these challenges, the sector offers many opportunities to become more environmentally friendly. These include product design and engineering improvements to reduce Scope 1 & 2 emissions, ethical selection and sourcing of sustainable alternative materials, smart technologies combined with green energy, streamlined shipping and distribution, new propulsion technologies, and sustainable aviation fuels.
Industry Characteristics
- Without action, the industry would contribute to significantly higher global CO2 emissions by 2050 and could face restrictions that could be detrimental to its revenues and jobs. While all carbon emissions matter, Scope 3 emissions represent the largest proportion and are the most difficult to address, given the number of stakeholders involved. Source: Deloitte
- Most defense companies are trying to reduce their carbon footprint across facilities and assets by creating smart buildings, constructing and operating smart manufacturing facilities, and utilizing power efficiently. Defense aerospace OEMs are using advanced technologies such as digital twin to run thousands of digital/virtual simulations to optimize design and production, thereby reducing emissions that would have been otherwise generated. Source: Deloitte
Sustainability Impact
- Without decarbonization, aviation emissions could grow 3.6 times the emissions generated in 2005 and be responsible for 22% of the planet’s total emissions by 2050. Source: Deloitte
- Aviation contributes around 3-5% of the total warming effect that causes climate change and in 2019 it contributed around 2% to global human-made CO2 emissions. Source: ADS Group
- The global defense industry’s contribution to worldwide CO2 emissions could soar from 2% today to 25% by 2050—unless contractors work more aggressively to reduce their carbon footprints. Source: BCG
- Defense forces contribute a substantial amount to government CO₂ emissions. Estimates suggest that each year the US Department of Defense emits over 56 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent (a metric ton of CO₂ equivalent measures emissions with the same global warming potential as one metric ton of CO₂). Of this amount, 60 percent is from vehicle, aircraft, ship and passenger-fleet emissions; 25 percent is purchased electricity; 10 percent is on-site fuel consumption at federal facilities; and 5 percent comes from other sources. Source: McKinsey
Sustainability Investments to watch
- Sustainable aerospace manufacturing involves designing and building commercial and military aircraft through economically sound processes that minimize negative environmental impacts while conserving energy and natural resources. The four main areas where sustainable practices can drive measurable improvements across the aerospace manufacturing value chain include improving product design and engineering; ethically selecting and sourcing sustainable alternative materials; combining smart technologies and green energy; and streamlining shipping and distribution. Source: Deloitte
- Innovative aircraft design - While aircraft manufacturers can reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions using efficient processes during the product design stage, innovative aircraft design can also help in reducing Scope 3 emissions when aircraft are flying. Aircraft manufacturers have been focusing on weight reduction and aerodynamics to improve fuel efficiency. Source: Deloitte
- New propulsion technologies - a) Electric/hybrid-electric propulsion is emerging as a promising technology in the long term as the aerospace industry can leverage recent advancements in the automotive industry to use batteries to power an electric motor and spin a propeller or ducted fan to generate thrust; b) Hydrogen propulsion could significantly reduce climate impact by eliminating carbon emissions on medium- and potentially long-haul flights in the long run and could become the linchpin between renewable energy and energy-intensive industries such as aviation. Source: Deloitte
- Sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) are produced from sustainable feedstocks and are very similar in their chemistry to traditional fossil jet fuel. Bigger aircraft and longer flights require more energy, and SAFs are emerging as a viable alternative to fossil fuels because they are among the most measurable solutions to address climate change and reduce carbon emissions. Source: Deloitte
