Shell, Accenture and American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) announced a series of changes to their blockchain-powered sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) book-and-claim platform, Avelia, aimed at expanding it into a broader industry solution to help scale the adoption of SAF, including opening up the platform to multiple fuel suppliers beyond Shell Aviation.
Launched in 2022 with 1 million gallons of SAF, the Avelia program utilizes a book-and-claim model, enabling business travelers to pay for SAF and claim the environmental benefits, even if the SAF is not available at their departure airport. The solution was developed by Shell and Accenture, with the support of the Energy Web Foundation (EWF), and includes Amex GBT’s travel management services to aggregate global demand for SAF from its 19,000 global customers. To date, Shell is the sole SAF supplier for the platform.
In an update provided by the companies, Shell, Accenture and Amex GBT revealed to as of March 2025, more than 57 companies and airlines have joined the platform, contributing to the injection of more than 33 million gallons of SAF at 17 airport injection points globally, resulting in the abatement of more than 300,000 tonnes of CO2e on a lifecycle emissions basis, relative to conventional jet fuel.
Fuel accounts for the vast majority of the aviation sector’s emissions. Generally produced from sustainable resources, like waste oils and agricultural residues, SAF is seen as one of the key tools to help decarbonize the aviation industry in the near- to medium-term. SAF producers estimate the fuels can result in lifecycle GHG emissions reductions of as much as 85% relative to conventional fuels.
According to the companies, the evolution of the platform comes as SAF represents the most viable current solutions to reduce aviation emissions, yet SAF is still only produced in relatively small quantities, with the IATA recently estimating that SAF production in 2025 will account for just 0.7% of airlines’ total fuel consumption. Efforts to meaningfully increase the use of SAF by airlines face significant challenges, including the low supply currently available on the market, and prices currently well above those of conventional fossil-based fuels.
Evan Konwiser, Chief Product and Strategy Officer, Amex GBT said:
“For the majority of companies, Scope 3 emissions represent the largest share of their total carbon footprint and reducing them can be challenging… As a partner in Avelia, we continue to grow and evolve the world’s first and now most established book and claim platform for SAF. Together we can accelerate its scale and increase customer access to its environmental benefits.”
Among the key changes announced to the Avelia platform is the evolution to a multi-supplier model, allowing users to access the GHG benefits of SAF from multiple suppliers, and to manage SAF from different suppliers within Avelia. The companies said that the platform is also looking to introduce a “Bring Your Own SAF” (BYOS) model, which would allow airlines to manage more of their SAF portfolio in Avelia, including fuel originally purchased outside of the Shell supply network as well as SAF that otherwise would have been tracked offline and not on a digital registry, with the move aimed at supporting the use of book and claim solutions for tracking SAF to help build credibility for the model at an industry level and accelerate SAF adoption.
Raman Ojha, President, Shell Aviation said:
“This moment marks a significant milestone not only for Avelia but for the aviation sector. Avelia’s evolution from a single-supplier platform to a multi-supplier industry solution is a powerful demonstration of how collaboration, technology and innovation can accelerate the scaling of SAF.”
The companies also announced that Avelia is in the process of setting-up a multilateral governance structure to enable multi-party involvement and more transparency information around its operating procedures, and that the platform data is now hosted and handled by Accenture, providing a blockchain-powered transparent, secure, reliable and externally verified platform for accessing and allocating the information for the applicable SAF offering.
Dr. Jesko-Philipp Neuenburg, Global Travel and Aviation Sustainability Lead, Accenture, said:
“As Avelia’s strategic advisor and technology partner, Accenture continues to shape its evolution while overseeing data processing, and hosting for Shell. This safeguards data compartmentalization and transparency, giving customers clear control. It also builds the secure, scalable foundation needed for a flexible industry platform. Together, we are enabling aviation to advance towards achieving its climate commitments.”
