As part of Delta’s sustainability mindset and to protect our employees, our customers and the communities we serve, we view environmental compliance and stewardship through a broad lens, with established programs focused on air and water quality, responsible waste management, incident response, remediation and industrial hygiene.
Delta’s Environmental team establishes the company’s strategy, policies and management systems, which provide the framework for maintaining compliance with the complex array of environmental regulations. Additionally, the team works across Delta’s airline operations to develop best management practices that go beyond regulatory requirements to reduce environmental impacts.
Performance Measurement
We measure environmental compliance and stewardship performance through a variety of metrics, including air emissions, hazardous waste generation and fines imposed.
For detailed figures, see our environmental data tables:
Delta relies on three key system tools to manage our environmental programs, reduce risk and minimize the impact of our operations:
ADDRESSING RISKS TO EMPLOYEES FROM WILDFIRES
As part of Delta’s continuing work to identify and mitigate climate-related risks, we created a cross-divisional team to assess potential hazards and develop mitigations to address the risk of wildfire impacts to our employees. Smoke associated with these fires can deteriorate air quality for outdoor workers. This effort resulted in a comprehensive approach to ensuring employee safety, including establishing procedures to modify operations during a wildfire smoke event and ensuring stations are supplied with appropriate personal protective equipment. We also developed a Weather Information Tool, which enables stations to proactively monitor air quality and provides alerts if the air quality approaches critical thresholds.
ADDRESSING ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE
The illegal trafficking of wildlife is a danger to biodiversity, ecosystems and global security. Traffickers frequently exploit commercial transport infrastructures, including cargo and passenger airlines, to move illegal wildlife products between source and destination countries. To do our part to help address this harmful practice, Delta cooperates with U.S. federal authorities – including the Department of Agriculture, Customs and the Fish and Wildlife Service – to adhere to applicable regulations. We also continue to maintain policies prohibiting shipment of hunting trophies of key endangered species.
In 2023, Delta took a further step by joining United for Wildlife (UfW), an initiative of the Prince of Wales and the Royal Foundation, which aims to foster international, crosssector collaboration to make it impossible for traffickers to transport, finance or profit from illegal wildlife products. Delta has also signed onto UfW’s Buckingham Palace Declaration that outlines 11 commitments – including adopting zero-tolerance policies, increasing awareness, sharing data and information, and coordinating with law enforcement, trade and other authorities – to help disrupt illegal wildlife trade.