What is a SAF certificate?
A SAF certificate records the verified reduction from a batch of sustainable aviation fuel. It is dual RSB and ISCC certified, externally audited, retired on a registry, and counted once.
The currency of Book and Claim.
It gives buyers a documented claim they can stand behind.
A SAF certificate is the instrument that represents the environmental attributes of sustainable aviation fuel. It is how the reduction from a batch of fuel is recorded, owned, and transferred, separately from the physical fuel itself. The version for corporate buyers is the SAF Scope 3 certificate, named for the claim the buyer makes. It records the indirect reduction reported under the GHG Protocol, Scope 3, Category 6, business travel.
What a certificate actually carries.
In registry terms, the certificate is a Registry Retirement Statement. It is formal proof that a defined quantity of SAF was used, assigned to one buyer, then retired so it can't be claimed again. A statement typically carries four things:
- Transaction detail: a unique serial number and a block ID, the controls that stop double counting.
- Impact: the tonnes of SAF used, the tonnes of CO2e reduced, and the reduction against a fossil baseline, up to 80% on a lifecycle basis.
- Chain of custody: the producer, the feedstock, and the airport of physical delivery.
- Verification: the certification scheme used, ISCC or RSB, and a verified compute check.
A reduction inside the value chain.
A SAF certificate is insetting: the reduction sits inside the aviation value chain, where the emissions actually occur. A corporate buyer reports it against their own Scope 3 travel footprint. That is different from offsetting, which sits outside the value chain, such as planting trees to compensate for flying. Buyers often arrive saying "carbon credits", but a SAF certificate is not a carbon credit or an offset. As corporate reporting rules tighten, insetting is the more defensible choice.
Counted once, and why that holds up.
The whole value of a certificate rests on it being owned once and retired once within its scope. An attribute claimed twice within the same scope is worthless. FEG's model is certified to RSB and ISCC, audited externally, and settled on a registry with double-counting controls, so the reduction survives due diligence. It is recognised by the SBTi Corporate Net Zero Standard V2 for Scope 3 through Book and Claim, mandatory for new targets from 2028.