Southwest Airlines goes from the skies to the big screen in an upcoming episode of EARTH with John Holden! EARTH with John Holden takes viewers around the world to learn how companies are implementing changes to protect the environment and promote a more eco-friendly world. In the episode, host John Holden travels to Texas and Colorado to learn how Southwest is investing in a Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) company to reduce the environmental impact of air travel by shifting the aviation market away from oil.
Our episode airs:
- Sunday, April 23 at 5:00 pm ET on Fox Business Network
- Sunday, April 30 at 3:30 pm ET and Sunday, May 7 at 3:30 pm ET on Bloomberg TV
- The episodes are also available on the streaming platforms Vimeo, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, and YouTube
Specifically, the episode highlights Southwest’s investment in SAFFiRE Renewables, LLC (SAFFiRE), a company formed by D3MAX, LLC, as part of a Department of Energy-funded pilot project supporting the development and production of scalable SAF. SAFFiRE is expected to utilize technology developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to convert corn stover, a widely available agricultural residue in the U.S., into renewable ethanol that would then be upgraded into SAF. According to NREL, this could produce significant quantities of cost-competitive SAF that could provide an 84-percent reduction in carbon intensity compared to conventional jet fuel on a lifecycle basis.
For Southwest, this was a first-of-its-kind investment into what we believe could be a game-changing technology that could help us reach our environmental sustainability goals. SAF is critical to decarbonizing aviation, and we have a goal to replace 10 percent of our total jet fuel consumption with SAF by 2030.
At Southwest, our efforts with SAF could help us shift the aviation market away from oil while continuing to connect our Customers with what matters most to them. We’re excited to be featured on EARTH with John Holden, and share with the world more about our investment in SAFFiRE!
