Qantas CEO: asset owners’ fierce engagement efforts speed up net zero progress

Pro-active engagement efforts by asset owners is more and more leading to major changes within corporate governance and maturing companies' net zero strategies, according to the outgoing CEO of airline Qantas. 

Alan Joyce, who is retiring at the end of this year after nearly 15 years in charge of the Australian company, said that the "changing nature of shareholder activity, notably growing direct engagement from superannuation funds" prompted Qantas to create the role of chief sustainability officer. 

Calling Qantas’ meetings with several of its domestic and international institutional investors “uplifting and interesting”, Joyce acknowledged they played a vital role in pushing the airline in terms of net zero efforts.

Active engagement by them led to the creation of a new business unit that oversees carbon offsets, sustainable fuel and net zero technologies. 

For example, a range of new planes that were recently acquired by Qantas have 25 per cent less emissions than its current fleet. 

“We’re seeing a lot of super funds engaging directly. We also have seen that [engagement] change over time because now sustainability has become a big part of the future. Achieving net-zero by 2050 is absolutely achievable,” Joyce told Investment Magazine.