We recently sat down with Saleem Saeed, over one year into his role as Sustainability Manager at IAG Cargo, to explore how he’s spearheading the company’s sustainability strategy. Leaving the construction industry to follow a passion for working in aviation, Saleem shares insights into exciting upcoming projects, innovative strategies for reducing emissions and waste, and how he’s engaging colleagues and customers in IAG Cargo’s sustainability journey.
Tell us about your role
As Sustainability Manager, I’m responsible for leading and coordinating IAG Cargo’s sustainability initiatives, ensuring they align with and advance the company’s broader strategic goals. With a background in environmental management from the construction industry, I’ve brought a diverse set of transferable skills, particularly in waste management, to my new position at IAG Cargo, enabling me to tackle key challenges in the air cargo sector.
Are there any projects that you’re particularly excited about?
The transition of our 160-strong ground vehicle fleet from diesel to Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) at our London Heathrow campus has been particularly exciting to see. This shift results in a remarkable lifecycle reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of up to 90% depending on feedstock and will reduce IAG Cargo’s overall Scope 1 emissions by approximately 50%. This transition is part of our broader ground fleet decarbonisation strategy, which involves assessing the infrastructure at our campuses and our fleets to identify the most efficient paths for change. While this conversion won’t happen overnight, it’s essential that we proactively prepare the necessary infrastructure to ensure a seamless transition to a zero-emissions fleet.
The team based at our Madrid hub are currently exploring the installation of solar panels to generate renewable energy on-site that could see a 30% reduction in electricity consumption.
What are the major challenges you see in the industry, and how is IAG Cargo addressing them?
Collaborating with our customers and IAG on the procurement and delivery of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) remains one of our key priorities. We value our close relationships with customers, which enable us to engage in meaningful discussions about our SAF offerings and how it aligns with our customers’ own decarbonisation journeys.
I was thrilled to witness our recent partnership to use an additional 60 million litres of SAF on behalf of DHL, marking it one of DHL’s largest SAF customer agreements and the largest such agreement by an airline to date. These collaborative efforts reinforce our commitment to drive sustainable airfreight solutions and bring us a step closer to achieving our target of net zero emissions by 2050.
In addition to our SAF programme, we’re now members of the Smart Freight Centre’s Clean Air Transport group. This initiative works with strategic partners and its members to improve access to primary data, develop practical book and claim guidelines for SAF use, and refine emissions accounting methodologies. By being fully transparent with our customers, we can help them better understand their own emissions and provide opportunities for them to take action.
However, a lack of supply and limited production capacity remain major challenges in the adoption of SAF. At IAG and IAG Cargo, we’re investing heavily in the diversification of our supply portfolio to overcome these shortages and provide the best offers for our customers, enhanced by Heathrow Airport’s SAF Incentive scheme.
We’re also focusing on the materials used in our operations to minimise waste and conserve natural resources. I’m pleased to see significant progress toward our goal of reducing waste by 25% per tonne of cargo handled and reaching an 80% recycling rate by 2025. For example, wood from our cargo pallets and spreaders currently accounts for around 50% of our total waste stream, representing a significant opportunity to achieve greater resource efficiency. We’re currently working with our timber supplier to implement a buy-back model for the collection of used wooden spreaders and pallets, which can either be recycled or reused within our network. Any wood that doesn’t meet the standards is either sold on or chipped and used as a renewable energy source, creating a closed-loop system.
How do you engage IAG Cargo colleagues in adopting sustainable practices in the workplace?
A key aspect of my role is actively engaging with colleagues across the business to explore their ideas for integrating sustainability into the workplace. Our CoLAB programme, a platform designed to capture employee-driven innovations, has been instrumental in involving our workforce in addressing sustainable challenges.
We also provide sustainability training for colleagues as part of our “Leading the Way” programme, further embedding sustainable practices across the company. Witnessing collaborative efforts, driven by our own people, has been incredibly rewarding.
What message would you like to share as you commence your second year at IAG Cargo
Sustainability isn’t a competition—it’s a shared responsibility. We’re all striving toward the same goal and tackling the same challenges, and collaboration is essential to building a more sustainable future for our industry. As IAG Cargo continues to make strides, I encourage colleagues and customers across the sector to join forces with us. Together, we have the power to drive real change.
