The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has launched its Integrated Sustainability Program (ISP) at the IATA World Sustainability Symposium (WSS) in Hong Kong.
Developed in collaboration with multiple partners, including Airbus, International Airlines Group (IAG), and Qatar Airways, the new certification programme is an evolution of the successful IATA Environmental Assessment (IEnvA) certification. ISP will provide airlines with a more comprehensive framework for sustainability management and assessment, covering four key modules. These include sustainable procurement and social responsibility, as well as environmental guidelines.
Airlines can choose to pursue each certification individually or as a collective. Independent assessments every two years will judge whether airlines are upholding the key principles of the programme. Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s Senior Vice President for Sustainability and Chief Economist, commented:
The comprehensive ISP certification program validates that an airline is managing its sustainability efforts at the highest level and in the broadest context. It does this by integrating the monitoring of environmental, social, and governance measures and providing all stakeholders, regulators, and customers with a transparent view of the progress.
This comes with the added value of being designed for airlines’ specific needs, making ISP a practical framework to inform decision-making while ensuring that airlines’ efforts are aligned with global best practices
The four ISP modules are as follows:
- Environmental Management: IEnvA is now fully integrated with ISP, giving airlines the tools to assess their environmental impact and develop new strategies for mitigating pollution, waste, and emissions.
- Sustainable Procurement: Encourages holistic, sustainable development of supply chains.
- Social Responsibility: Advancing human rights and community engagement.
- Sustainability Performance: A programme to facilitate transparent reporting and decision making across ESG.
ISP is currently available to airlines only, but IATA report that in the future they will expand the initiative to ground handlers, cargo handlers, airports, and MRO.
To coincide with the announcement, IATA revealed the first airlines who qualify for the ISP Sustainable Procurement certification. In Hong Kong, they announced Air New Zealand and EVA Air as the inaugural recipients.
Kiri Hannifin, Air New Zealand Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer, said:
By backing IATA’s new ISP, we want to play our part to help lift standards across aviation, and demonstrate that doing what’s right is about doing good business.
Join us at World Aviation Festival 2026 to discuss the sustainability landscape in aviation.
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