SQUAKE / Convelio: an Interview with Philipp von Lamezan

We are so pleased to announce Convelio’s partnership with SQUAKE. Tell us more about the company, why, and how it was built?

We share the excitement to partner with Convelio, jointly shaping the sustainable transport world today.

The world is dramatically changing in the light of the climate crises. Not only regulatory bodies put focus on sustainable operations, but way more important clients and end-consumers demand transparency and sustainable choices from transport companies. SQUAKE has been established to enable companies in transport to meet this very demand through easily implementable tech solutions.

The mission of SQUAKE is rooted in the realization that it will take years for the transport industry to switch to a new business model allowing the gigantic infrastructure of all transport operations to become fully decarbonized. There is a critical gap between the urge to act upon emissions right now and the complexity of immediate solutions (such as zero carbon emitting means of transport on a large scale) .

This is what pushed us to support the industry by designing a tool covering both ends of every decarbonization plan:

• getting a deep understanding of one’s emission through accurate, industry specific, fast, and secure calculations
• and facilitating impactful and certified options to compensate for the share of emissions that still can’t be avoided in the short term.

Our DNA is to make sustainable transport accessible and easy to implement today for everyone. To do so, we focus on providing the best infrastructure which allows our clients to have a bundle of solutions from a single source: our carbon calculations methodologies are now covering all means of transport - all connectable through one single API.

We keep our clients requirements always top of mind: our product is designed to be integrated seamlessly in our clients UX so that there is real value added by displaying carbon emissions to consumers and offering compensations.

Please can you tell us more about the CO2e calculation methodology you use?

Our market leading API is offering built-in world class methodologies, certifications, and databases. Our clients can either base their calculations on their proprietary real data, when available, or rely on our certified data and methodologies.

As calculation frameworks are constantly evolving, our job is to always provide the most up-to-date, certified methodologies so that our clients don’t have to do the leg work in this complex ever evolving field. We keep our calculation framework under constant improvement as we add more layers of granularity in our calculations and challenge our status quo. Our team of analysts and developers is regularly creating bespoke frameworks to allow for even more accurate results.

Being externally audited and certified is integral part of our understanding to be the most trusted, reliable partner in field. This is why we partner with third parties and external experts. A good example is our partnership with the Smart Freight Centre, a renowned authority in shipping and freight carbon emission calculations. They audited, approved and publicly supported our implementation of their GLEC framework, now made available for all our clients to benefit from - such as Convelio. This framework allows CO2 calculations considering the distance of a shipment and furthermore fuel type, vessel type, vehicle age, engine type and many more to get a highly accurate prediction value.

It would be great to hear your take on why Convelio clients should compensate for emissions through SQUAKE?

Transport will always be a vital element in human society. The future lies in changing a carbon emission intensive industry into a neutral one. Getting there requires three main steps:

1. Understanding emissions
2. Reducing and avoiding emissions through change in processes and infrastructure
3. Compensating for the remainders.

Companies such as Convelio encouraging their customers and clients to choose sea freight over air freight is one example of understanding and making (sustainable) better choices. While process optimization and conscious decision making on transportation represents one lever, development of new technologies towards zero emissions means of transport are in progress - however it will take substantial time until we reach this on industry level.

This is where Convelio’s client can participate in the change: by actively understanding emissions, taking sustainable choices on transport and eventually compensating the remainders will actively contribute against climate change.

Contributing to a climate project via SQUAKE is the guarantee that your funds will be invested in certified solutions with real impact, be it through nature or technology-based projects.

What is your take on the future of shipping?

The future of shipping is being built before our own eyes with a change in behaviors, a change in regulation and disrupting innovations rising everywhere: improved engine efficiency, scale of electrification, innovations in vessel types, new sustainable energies (SAF…) and many more.

It is very encouraging to witness all types of stakeholders, from all stages of the supply chain, gearing up towards the same goal to reach zero emissions in transport, whether it is governments, operators, service providers and - last but not least and highly influencing - the end consumer.

Could you tell us more about Sustainable Aviation Fuels?

Sustainable Aviation Fuel, commonly known as SAF, is a non-fossil-derived-fuel developed for airplanes specifically that started to emerge in 2008. SAF can be produced from feedstocks and biomass such as corn grail, oil seeds, various types of fat, oils and greases, or agriculture wastes. To avoid agricultural land being used for SAF instead of food, Compensaid uses HEFA SAF only.

On a scope 1 level, SAF is 100% carbon neutral. And when we zoom out to consider the entire supply chain of an operated flight, total emissions are reduced by 80% compared to use of fossil-fuel, because we then take into account broader scopes including the logistics and handling of it. SAF is the future of sustainable aviation industry for both freight and passenger, though the technology is yet to reach a scale at which the marginal cost vs fossil-fuel would disappear.

Right now, SAF is 3 to 5 times more expensive to produce than fossil-fuel. Airlines and carriers just can’t afford to be the only ones bearing the premium. This is when reduction happens and is so critical to make sustainable aviation possible today and affordable tomorrow. Each single euro invested in reducing emissions via SAF is a step closer to scaling the technology across the entire industry.

Please can you explain how you work with Compensaid to ensure that the SAF program is regulated?

Our partner Compensaid is Lufthansa Group's digital platform for CO₂-neutral flying created by the Lufthansa Innovation Hub. It enables passengers and businesses to reduce flight related CO₂ emissions through the use of SAF. The process between us is as follow:

• SQUAKE collects contributions through it’s API and purchases the respective amount of SAF on a monthly basis.
• This resulting volume of SAF will then be put into operation (= fuelled in actual planes) within 12 months.
• The resulting emission mitigation (1 ton of CO2 emission mitigation corresponds to 0.334 tons of SAF) will be exclusively allocated to SQUAKE

Contributions to SAF from airlines, individuals and organizations (through Compensaid and SQUAKE) are helping to drive demand for SAF, thus scaling SAF availability at a much better price in the long term. SQUAKE is then credited on behalf of its customers for the reduction in CO2 resulting from the use of SAF.