As Managing Director for the Malta division of DC Aviation, Stanley leads a team of less than 30 aviation professionals. A few years ago, Stanley made a commitment to act in line with his values and began working on a plan for the DC Aviation business to be more sustainable. Now his colleagues amusingly refer to him as “Mr. Sustainability”, but he wasn’t always focused on decarbonization.

Analyzing Viability of Hybrid-Electric Aircraft

Eco-Pulse modifies a Daher TBM airframe with an electric propulsion system from Safran, including six ePropellers, as well as aerodynamic optimization, flight control laws for the distributed propulsion system and a high-voltage battery from Airbus. With its maiden flight test in hybrid-electric mode in late 2023, from Daher’s European aircraft division headquarters in Tarbes, France, Eco-Pulse became a real-world demonstration that a single electrical source can power multiple electric motors distributed in positions throughout the aircraft, safely and at high levels of performance.

“We designed Eco-Pulse collaboratively and with as much complexity as possible in order to analyze the viability of, and accelerate the maturity of, a variety of sustainability-driving technologies,” said Robin. “Our hope is to accelerate decarbonization across general and commercial aviation, while positioning Daher as a sustainable-aviation pioneer.”

Stanley admits to being a late converter to the idea of sustainability and could not pinpoint an exact moment when he realized he needed to create a sustainable strategy, it was a journey. “When you have a family and start to grow older, there are tough questions that come to mind about the future and what you can do about it. These questions came to me, and I decided that not only can I do something in an effort to make life better for our children’s future but also for the business aviation industry that I love.”

Stanley explained how he started small with things he could change, and when it came to replacing the lighting in their hangars in Stuttgart and Dubai, there was an option for a significantly more energy-efficient solution. It produces a more natural, daylight feel in the hangar that improves safety and the workplace environment for employees. Plus, its efficiency will make it less expensive over time and help DC lower its carbon footprint. It was a win-win decision that made the entire DC Aviation team proud.

Stanley has continued the journey and looks for ways to make an impact. Last fall the Malta Business Aviation Association, which Stanley co-founded, hosted their annual Malta Aviation Conference and Exhibition (MACE). Looking to highlight sustainability at the conference, the team decided to offset the emissions of the entire show and its attendees’ travel to make the event carbon neutral.

“Offsetting is the voluntary action that we can do right now. The availability of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) in Malta is still in the future, therefore, offsetting jet fuel emissions was a logical next step for us.”

When it came to offsetting, Stanley had the same concerns as many others. It seemed complicated and there were plenty of stories floating around about fake projects or illegal activities associated with some sketchy carbon credit programs. Once Stanley heard that IBAC was teaming up with Carbon Trade Exchange (CTX) for carbon offsetting, he was very interested to learn more. Stanley stated, “If the International Business Aviation Council – IBAC, an association representing the global business aviation industry with ICAO recognition – was endorsing this arbon credit exchange group then I knew my search for an offsetting partner was over.”

Stanley soon connected with Bruce Parry, IBAC’s Environment Director, as the two knew each other from working together at EBAA and collaborated on the introduction of the new Standards and Training for Aviation Responsibility and Sustainability (S.T.A.R.S.) programme when it was first announced.

“Bruce connected me with the team at CTX, and we started the rather easy onboarding process of getting our company registered and an account set-up. The only unexpected part came when we made it to the step of choosing the carbon credit project. The choices seemed more limited than I imagined but there were good reasons for this and the CTX team explained. First, as offsetting becomes more accepted around the world, more qualified carbon credits are being acquired and new ones take time to be vetted. Secondly, we were looking to offset 1 million litres of Jet A fuel last year and preferred to focus on a single project and there were fewer projects of this scale, available at the time. Keep in mind you can combine several smaller carbon credit activities, that may be priced differently to collectively meet your offset goal. We eventually chose a renewable energy program and CTX helped us every step of the way. Their platform is easy to navigate and offers a variety of offsets and pricing whether you are looking for CORSIA credits or others to align with your budget.”

DC Aviation in Malta is now offering the option of offsetting flights to clients and have been pleasantly surprised at the response. Stanley noted that operators should not assume customers won’t be interested because most of them want to be more sustainable and are choosing to offset their private travel.

“It’s exciting for me to share my story with industry colleagues and suggest they save time researching by going through CTX as a proven creditable carbon credit exchange for business aviation. But more importantly I want to encourage everyone in our industry to start your journey and create a sustainability plan. It is not that difficult to get started and when it comes to offsetting, CTX makes it a painless process. You can start small and do whatever you can afford and have the manpower to manage. If I can do this with such a small team here in Malta, I believe anyone can. Sustainability is a challenge for our industry and will take time to get everyone on board but like the Wright Brothers taught us, we must keep trying and not give up, because together we can make a difference.”