The Sustainable Future Group (SFG), Sri Lanka’s premier Sustainability Validation and Verification Body which was South Asia’s first to be IAF-accredited to award ISO 14064-1 & 2 for Organisational and Project-level GHG Reporting, ISO 14067 for Product Carbon Footprinting, and ISO 14065 for Environmental Information, chalked up another “FIRST” when it was accredited under the Carbon Offsetting Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) Scheme. The accreditation was granted by the Sri Lanka Accreditation Board (SLAB) recently during the first day of the ‘Environment Matters in Aviation Workshop’ held at the Sri Lanka Civil Aviation Authority (SLCAA) auditorium in the presence of the Minister of Ports, Shipping, and Aviation, South Asian Civil Aviation Authorities, South Asian Airplane Operators, and other high-level stakeholders in the Aviation industry. Representatives of the EU – South Asia Aviation Partnership Project II (EU-SAAPP II) who provided guidance, support and training for SFG against the CORSIA Scheme from 2019 up until the point of accreditation were also present at the occasion.
The CORSIA scheme provides specifications for airplane operators to calculate and report its CO2 emissions from its fleet, application of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs), and offsetting the amount of CO2 emissions which cannot be reduced through the use of technological improvements, operational improvements, and SAF usage with selected types of emissions units from the global carbon market. SFG is now accredited to verify whether airplane operators have correctly calculated its fleet emissions and have offset its residual emissions against the specifications provided in the CORSIA Scheme. Their first assessment was conducted on the ‘Airplane Operator Emissions Report’ of Maldivian Airlines (Island Aviation Services Limited) of the Maldives, which comprised of a desk and site review at the Maldivian Airlines office premises. Following the assessment, the results were then verified in accordance with the ISO/IEC 17029:2019 and ISO 14065:2020 Standards by SFG.
CORSIA is the first global compliance market-based scheme for any sector implemented by The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) that oversee and coordinate international air navigation principles and regulations.
The accreditation certificate was handed over to SFG by Dr. Sampath Wahala (Chairman, SLAB) to Mr. Sajeewa Ranasinghe (Manager – Sustainability Assurance & Advisory Services, SFG).