Measuring What Matters: AVT's Journey Toward Greener Aerial Surveying

Towards Greener Skies

Sustainability is one of the defining challenges of our time — and the aerial surveying sector is no exception. Every flight brings valuable data to society, but it also carries an environmental cost. How can we balance this responsibility while striving for innovation and efficiency?

To open this conversation, EAASI is launching a new series where members share their experiences, reflections, and initiatives on environmental good practices in aerial surveying.

The second contribution comes from Rainer Krammer of AVT Airborne Sensing, who shared the journey of how a medium-sized aerial surveying company achieved carbon neutrality. He discusses the importance of evaluating a company's total footprint — from the aircraft in the sky to the daily commutes of employees — and the practical steps taken to bridge the gap toward a greener future.

---

Measuring What Matters: AVT's Journey Toward Greener Aerial Surveying

Every aerial survey mission captures essential data that supports decisions across planning, infrastructure, climate monitoring, and countless other applications. Yet each flight also leaves an environmental footprint. For Austria's AVT Airborne Sensing, confronting this reality head-on has meant moving beyond good intentions to rigorous measurement, honest self-assessment, and practical action—even when progress proves slower than hoped.

Why AVT Started Measuring

When Rainer Krammer from AVT Airborne Sensing first shared the company's sustainability journey during an EAASI webinar in 2023, he was careful to frame it not as a marketing exercise but as a long-standing management concern. The glacier imagery he presented—showing the dramatic retreat of Seekarlesferner between 2015 and 2022, only 60 km away from AVT´s head office—brought the urgency uncomfortably close to home.

With its headquarters in Imst, Tyrol, and aerial operations centered at Münster-Osnabrück Airport in Northern Germany, AVT witnesses the Alpine retreat that many only read about in reports.

Founded in 1970, AVT employs around 100 people across multiple Austrian offices and offices in Germany and Italy, delivering nadir, oblique, thermal, and hyperspectral airborne imaging services. Understanding the environmental cost of this work required a systematic approach, which is why AVT began evaluating its carbon footprint in 2022 using the widely recognized Greenhouse Gas Protocol framework.

Understanding the Footprint: Scopes 1, 2 and 3

The GHG Protocol divides emissions into three categories. Scope 1 covers direct emissions from sources a company controls, such as fuel burned in aircraft or vehicles. Scope 2 refers to indirect emissions from purchased energy, like electricity. Scope 3 encompasses all other indirect emissions across the value chain—employee commuting, purchased goods and services, and downstream activities.

For AVT, the results were unambiguous. Aircraft operations accounted for approximately 50% of Scope 1 emissions, but when Scope 3 was factored in—including emissions embedded in aviation fuel production and supply chains—aircraft-related emissions reached roughly 73% of the company's total footprint. Remarkably, only about 10% of AVT's workforce, those directly involved in flight operations, were responsible for three-quarters of the organization's climate impact.

Other findings painted a nuanced picture. Employee commuting contributed around 10% of total emissions, but in smaller offices this figure climbed to 30%. The headquarters in Imst accounted for approximately 18%, driven by staff concentration and IT infrastructure. The message was clear: in aerial surveying, any meaningful sustainability strategy must prioritize aircraft emissions.

Taking Action: What AVT Implemented

Armed with data, AVT introduced a suite of practical measures targeting the emissions it could most readily influence.

On energy, the company installed a photovoltaic system generating approximately 40,000 kWh annually, covering about a quarter of total electricity consumption. Nine electric vehicles joined the fleet, supported by three new charging stations at company sites.

To address commuting emissions, AVT offered financial support for employees purchasing bicycles through a job-bike scheme and provided free public transport tickets. Internally, a shift toward digital workflows reduced paper-based processes, while procurement standards introduced organic and fair-trade criteria for non-regional products.

One symbolic example stood out: AVT sources coffee from a small Austrian roastery that imports beans via sail cargo—a tangible illustration of what genuinely low-carbon supply chains might look like, rather than emissions merely offset on paper.

The Offset Question: Honesty About Limitations

Since 2021, AVT has described itself as carbon neutral, achieved by offsetting Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions through Gold Standard carbon credits. The company supports projects like the Ibanda-Makera Forest Cook Stove initiative in Rwanda, which reduces household emissions while delivering social co-benefits.

Yet Rainer posed uncomfortable questions in his 2023 presentation: Is it really carbon neutral? Can we buy carbon neutrality? Is it greenwashing?

This willingness to question its own approach distinguishes AVT's stance. Carbon offsets serve a pragmatic function—they allow companies to compensate for emissions that cannot yet be eliminated, particularly in hard-to-abate sectors like aviation. High-quality offsets support verified climate projects globally and help bridge the gap while technological solutions mature.

However, offsets should complement, not replace, direct emission reductions. AVT's transparency about this tension reflects a growing industry awareness that compensation is not a substitute for transformation.

The Hard Part: Decarbonizing Aircraft Operations

If measuring emissions was the first challenge, reducing aircraft-related emissions remains the sector's greatest hurdle. Rainer outlined the constraints clearly: modern aircraft offer lower fuel consumption but come with prohibitive costs and high embodied emissions from manufacturing. Retrofitting older aircraft with more efficient engines is technically feasible but blocked by regulatory barriers.

This is where individual company action meets structural limits. AVT's position is that meaningful progress requires policy intervention—investment in research, subsidies for small and medium enterprises, and regulatory frameworks that enable rather than obstruct innovation in aviation technology.

Where the Journey Stands Today

Nearly three years after that initial webinar, AVT continues to measure and compensate its emissions annually using Gold Standard credits. The foundational infrastructure remains in place: photovoltaic panels generate clean energy, electric vehicles operate across sites, and procurement standards hold.

The company's most recent compensation demonstrates this ongoing commitment. For the 2024 reporting year, AVT retired 955 Verified Emission Reductions through the African Improved Cookstoves and Clean Water Programme in Nyagatare, Rwanda—a Gold Standard certified project that addresses both climate impact and community development.

Looking Forward

AVT's experience offers a realistic portrait of corporate sustainability in a hard-to-abate sector. The company has done what many organizations have not: measured comprehensively, acted where possible, compensated transparently, and acknowledged limitations honestly.

The path forward requires dual commitment. Internally, continued efforts to embed sustainable choices into daily operations—from procurement to commuting to energy use. Externally, collective pressure for policy frameworks and technological innovation that make decarbonizing aviation not just aspirational but achievable.

As Rainer emphasized in his 2023 presentation, individual responsibility matters: thinking critically about travel choices, food systems, and consumption patterns. But individual action alone cannot solve structural challenges. The aerial surveying sector needs both companies willing to measure what matters and lead by example, and policymakers willing to create conditions where greener skies become possible for all.