4Air

We're excited to partner with 4Air, an aviation sustainability company providing consulting, documentation, and rating services, to offer corporate Customers in our SAF beta program independently verified assurance for the Scope 3 emission reduction rights associated with their support of the use of SAF in Southwest's operations. Southwest® has processes in place to track rights to emission reductions for our corporate partners in the program, and we are proud to partner with 4Air to verify that the purchased rights to emission reductions have been correctly accounted for.

ASCENT

We're an advisory member of ASCENT or the FAA Center of Excellence for Alternative Jet Fuels and Environment, a coalition of 16 leading U.S. research universities and over 60 private sector stakeholders committed to reducing the environmental impact of aviation. As a member of the advisory committee, we support ASCENT's mission to meet the environmental and energy goals of the Next Generation Air Transportation system, explore ways to produce sustainable aviation fuels at commercial scale, and discover science-based solutions that will benefit the industry and improve the health and quality of life of those living and working around airports.

Airlines for America (A4A)

As a member of Airlines for America, we support its goal to work with government leaders and other stakeholders to make three billion gallons of cost-competitive SAF available to U.S. aircraft operators by 2030 and to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

CHOOOSE^™

We're thrilled to work with CHOOOSE on our carbon offset offer that allows Customers to earn 10 Rapid Rewards^® bonus points per dollar spent on offsets, with up to a maximum of 500 Rapid Rewards bonus points per month.* For every dollar a Customer spends on carbon offsets, we'll contribute a dollar to the purchase of additional offsets to support global projects, and such additional offsets will be retired for Southwest.* Learn more about the carbon offset program. Learn more about the carbon offset program.

See full details below.*

Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI)

CAAFI is a government and industry coalition for the development and deployment of alternative jet fuel for commercial aviation. As a member of CAAFI, Southwest Airlines® promotes the development of alternative jet fuel options that offer equivalent Safety and competitive costs compared with petroleum-based jet fuel, while offering environmental improvement and energy supply security for aviation.

Contrail Impact Task Force

We joined forces with academic, technology, nonprofit, and airline partners to launch the Contrail Impact Task Force in 2022. The cross-sector task force was established to explore the formation and mitigation of condensation trails, or "contrails," that might affect the climate impact of some flights. Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and Breakthrough Energy, two clean-energy nonprofits, are spearheading the task force, which met for the first time in October 2022 at Southwest's Corporate Campus. We recognize that addressing the potential impact of contrails is an important step in our industry's environmental sustainability journey, and we're eager to better understand how each airline's potential impact may vary based on its routes and schedule.

Corporate Partners

Southwest Business collaborates with companies to support and advance sustainability initiatives within their corporate travel portfolios. We engaged with valued corporate Customers in SAF beta partnership agreements that support our utilization of SAF in our operation through the purchase of certain Scope 3 emission reductions rights from Southwest's use of such SAF.

We've also launched the Green Incentive Program, a Southwest Business performance-based incentive program that provides eligible corporate Customers—including Bio-Rad Laboratories and WM in 2022—the opportunity to earn and use funds for their company's sustainability initiatives, which could include offsets or other programs.

EcoVadis

We partner with EcoVadis, a sustainability ratings platform for global supply chains, to assess our suppliers through the EcoVadis ESG ratings platform. This partnership plays a vital role in enhancing transparency and evaluating the impact of our supply chain. 

Global Business Travel Association (GBTA)

As a Sustainability Partner of the GBTA Foundation and a member of its Sustainability Leadership Council, Southwest engages with the business travel industry to champion climate action throughout the value chain. Through our partnership with the GBTA Foundation, we are driving cross-industry collaboration between the users and the providers of corporate travel services – including aviation, hospitality, ground transport, travel management, and distribution.

Google

Furthering our efforts on contrails, Southwest collaborated with Google Research on a series of desktop trials throughout 2023, working with Google’s contrail prediction model to evaluate alternatives to planned routes that would have created contrails. We plan to expand our research efforts with Google in 2024.

Hawaii Seaglider Initiative

In March 2024, we joined the Hawaii Seaglider Initiative (HSI), a broad coalition of public and private organizations working to increase awareness and understanding of seagliders as a new affordable and accessible transportation option for Hawaii communities. These seagliders are a new type of vessel designed to combine the speed of an aircraft with the relatively lower cost of a boat to reduce the time and cost of transporting people and goods between coastal destinations. Our participation in HSI shows our Heart for Hawaii, its residents, and our Customers as we explore 100% electric, zero-direct emissions travel alternatives that have the potential to support our environmental sustainability goals.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

In 2021, we announced our ongoing support of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to develop commercially viable and scalable sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Southwest continues to support NREL's work to develop low-carbon, low-cost, high-performance aviation fuels. Through our work with organizations like NREL, we embrace opportunities to advance the crucial science needed to develop commercially viable and scalable SAF.

Repurpose with Purpose

The Repurpose with Purpose Program is Southwest's global sustainability initiative that upcycles items such as leather aircraft seat coverings and transforms them into new products. Southwest partners with organizations to reimagine thousands of pounds of materials every year, helping keep it out of landfills.

https://www.southwest.com/citizenship/people/community-outreach/repurpose-with-purpose/

SAF Coalition

In 2024, Southwest joined the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Coalition; the nonprofit coalition advocates for the incentives and policies necessary to promote U.S. economic competitiveness in the emerging SAF marketplace and rapidly scale investment in the SAF sector. 

SMBC Aviation Capital

In December 2022, we engaged with SMBC Aviation Capital (SMBC) to discuss the purchase of carbon credits from SMBC's newly launched carbon credit program, and in March 2023, we agreed to purchase more than 400,000 carbon credits over five years that will be sourced from energy-efficient cookstove projects in Africa and Central America. According to SMBC, its carbon credit projects were subject to independent due diligence by Climate Focus, a Dutch company, and the credits will be certified by either Gold Standard or Verra and align with up to 10 of the 17 United Nations SDGs, including Good Health and Wellbeing, Gender Equality, and Climate Action.

Yale University's Center for Natural Carbon Capture

In 2021, we proudly announced a $10 million commitment to Yale University's Center for Natural Carbon Capture and Yale's School of the Environment. This commitment aims to fund activity at the Center to research and explore innovative natural solutions to mitigate net greenhouse gas emissions.

We recognize the importance of supporting initiatives outside of aviation that take a long-term approach to decarbonization. This innovative partnership provides opportunities to help the development of crucial science to combat climate change, including fostering innovative research aimed at advancing efforts to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.