Amelia DeLuca - Chief Sustainability Officer at Delta Air Lines

Sustainable Nation

Amelia DeLuca serves as Chief Sustainability Officer at Delta Air Lines, leading the airline on its journey to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and deliver a more sustainable and elevated travel experience along the way. Prior to her appointment as Chief Sustainability Officer, DeLuca served as Vice President, International Customer Experience and Partner Sustainability. In that role, DeLuca led cross-divisional efforts to deliver a consistent premium customer experience across Delta’s partners. She also supported the development of Delta's partner sustainability strategy across Delta’s global partner network to enhance and accelerate the alliance’s leading sustainability position and provide greater collective impact across the Delta network.

During her 17-year career with Delta, DeLuca has held varied leadership positions within the Sustainability, Global Sales, Revenue Management and Network Planning teams and has been based in Mexico City, Minneapolis, Amsterdam, New York City and Atlanta. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and has her M.B.A. from the University of Amsterdam. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband and two daughters.

Amelia Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss:

• Delta’s decarbonization efforts and strategies
• What sustainable aviation fuel is and challenges to scale it
• How corporations can purchase sustainable aviation fueled flights from Delta
• Delta’s social and environmental sustainability strategies
• Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals

Amelia’s Final Five Questions Responses:

What is one piece of advice you would give to other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers?

I have two for this. I think first and foremost, take care of yourselves. I think that goes for anyone who is alive today, but especially those that are working. Obviously we've all been through a lot. I love that the world has shifted into talking about mental wellbeing more frequently. I think sustainability professionals need to really double down and think about that, because while optimism and passion takes us forward in what we do every single day, this is one of the most daunting things that I've ever been a part of. You open the news, or you go outside and you see a climate catastrophe. Some days it just feels really sad and depressing. So first off, take care of yourself. Make sure you have all the tools you need to feel good, and then secondly, lean into your peers and your sustainability friends. The incredible partners that I've made from my airline counterparts, extending beyond just the airlines, all sustainability counterparts that I've met, there's not a greater group of people than those in the sustainability profession. I've never reached out to someone and asked for advice or asked for their time and they’ve said no. Find a couple of people that you just really enjoy in this space, whether in your industry or something else, and build a relationship with them and it will stand the test of time.

What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability?

One of the things I struggle with the most in sustainability is when I feel like we make it really difficult for consumers to know what is right, what is up, what is correct. The news provides different viewpoints, which I think is super helpful, there shouldn't just be a “yes, this is the answer,” and no one disputes it. I love that there are people out there that challenge every part of sustainability from “what's the best product in terms of what to put on board? Is it a plastic water bottle because it's lighter weight or is it aluminum?” There's a fierce debate and I love debate, but the theme I like the most right now in sustainability is transparency. I don't mean transparency in the way that we think about it through the SEC climate rules, for example. I think about it as, not only are we taking time, and this podcast is such a great example, to educate consumers on how to think about sustainability trends. We're all walking towards a world where consumers are essentially empowered to make choices because brands and products and activities, you name it, offer information and transparency about the impact that consumers can make and the choice that feels most right to them personally. I'm personally really excited about the transparency that we're building as a community.

What is one book you'd recommend sustainability Leaders read?

I have two. The more common one, which is one of the first books I read when I moved into sustainability, was Drawdown. My guess is, if you're listening to this, you probably already read that by Paul Hawken, but I liked Drawdown because it really helped me take what felt like a really daunting subject that I was starting in and it broke it down into concepts, and it had a lot of numbers. It really was focused not on what the problems were, but what the climate solutions were. I’m a big fan of drawdown. Separately though, I'm a big fiction reader, and I do always encourage people, including our sustainability professionals, to make sure you continue to read fiction. Not only can it be uplifting if you've had a daunting day, but I think it also challenges our brain to think about things just more broadly, in different terms or from different angles. So another book that I am in the midst of reading right now, which is one of the top books from last year, is called The Candy House. It's a really trippy book. It's essentially this concept of social media that could allow us to upload and share our memories with each other. That just seems really weird. But the reason I say that is I like to read books that make me think about the world and where society is going from a different lens. Candy House is a really great example, it seems like the craziest idea ever. But then you're also like, well, with AI and where we're going, we could be there before we know it. I like to read books that just challenge me to think about the world a little differently.

What are your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work?

Podcasts, and that's not just a plug for this one, but I typically listen to a sustainability or climate podcast coming into work and leaving work. I'm a big fan of just kind of diving in topically on things that are interesting to me. Or if I've had something I've come across from a work perspective that I'm like, “Hey, I don't know that much about X,” I'll just listen to a podcast about it. It's such a great way to get a little bit deeper. My second thing of course is my team. I have an amazing team who all know so much more about this space than probably I ever will because many of them have come through college focusing on the environment or sustainability, or they have masters in the topics, or they've worked in the oil and gas industry. We have a woman who's come from Nike and stood up a big portion of their sustainability work a number of years ago. I rely upon them a lot on all things. I think that's what any good leader should do, build a team that knows more than they do and make sure that you’re tapping into them as they go.

Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at Delta?

I hope that you will learn more about Delta's sustainable journey and also look out for some of these sustainability enhancements that you're going to see on board going forward. You can also learn more about our path to sustainability and the progress we're making by going to https://news.delta.com/path-to-sustainability. You can also follow me on LinkedIn. I would love it if you follow me on LinkedIn and engage with me there. I always want to hear your thoughts and opinions on what Delta is doing.