Airbus aligns brand towards sustainability: we need courage

Airbus has made sustainability a core part of its mission. Holger Schubert, Head of Brand and Corporate Image, explains why this focus on sustainability is not a contradiction for the aerospace industry and how it shapes the Airbus brand.
Since Guillaume Faury became CEO in 2019, he has focused on defining Airbus' purpose. Schubert, with over 23 years at Airbus and Head of Brand and Corporate Image since 2020, co-developed this purpose with the agency Design Bridge and Partners and implemented it within the company, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In an interview with W&V, he discusses the importance of a brand purpose as a guiding principle and its impact on the company.
W&V: Mr Schubert, Airbus has put sustainability at the heart of its new purpose. I find that brave. For many people, there is a conflict between air traffic and sustainability. How do you address this contradiction?
Holger Schubert: Brave, yes, but I believe we need courage. Without courage, we cannot win the race for a better future, which applies not only to Airbus. Let me turn it around: We can't afford not to react. We live in this world and aware of what is currently happening. It is also up to our industry and our company to show new paths.
W&V: Where does this drive come from?
Holger Schubert: We see ourselves as pioneers. This is a core element of our brand understanding. But honestly, a lot is also happening on the regulatory level, the EU is very active. We cannot solve the challenges of our industry alone, but we have committed ourselves to lead the way in sustainability. We've done this before. We published our CO2 emissions and similar things before others in our industry. Our approach is: Facts first. That's how we want to resolve this contradiction. If we want to bring about substantial changes, we need measurable commitments.
W&V: When a brand starts to make changes, to improve and emit less CO2, the question often arises as when should they go public with it. Even if everything isn’t perfect yet. What was the turning point for you when you decided: Now it's good enough?
Holger Schubert: A lot is already good today, but it's still not quite good enough. The global aerospace sector still contributes about 2.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Verifiable data is crucial. Our goal is to reduce CO2 emissions by 63% in Scope 1 and Scope 2 by 2030, and by 46% in Scope 3 within the following five years. These targets are concrete, provable, and measurable.
W&V: Is measurability and transparency also a strategy to pre-emptively avoid accusations of greenwashing?
Holger Schubert: Greenwashing doesn't solve problems, so it cannot be in our interest. For me, it's about facts first. We need a clear plan and must identify where we can begin, working together with others. Aerospace is a system of systems. To transform it sustainably, we need to make progress on fundamental issues, establish real, understandable commitments, and document the changes.
W&V: I like the idea of a purpose as an operating system for a company that runs in the background and thus practically influences all processes and decisions. Airbus works with the phrase "Pioneering sustainable aerospace for a safe and united world". How do you ensure that such a purpose truly permeates the entire company and becomes such an operating system?
Holger Schubert: This effort must inevitably be driven and supported by top management. Even before Guillaume Faury became CEO in 2019, there was a noticeable internal need for a clear purpose. He made it one of his first strategic initiatives. The goal was to create a guiding star that everyone could align with and be held accountable to.
W&V: What does this guiding star mean specifically for your area, brand management?
Holger Schubert: We have adapted the brand persona, the tone of voice, and the communication guidelines with Design Bridge and Partners. When something is planned strategically or creatively with us, the purpose always comes first and is then broken down. The purpose is our reference point. This shifts our focus towards sustainability. Where we used to drive our communication strongly towards engineering, today we lean more towards innovations with a focus on sustainability and long-term benefits. ‘Long-term’ here doesn't only refer to climate impact. But it also means acting in a way that gives us the overall chance to maintain economic activity in the long term. Our ability to invest in new technologies depends on us dealing responsibly with our own resources. That's why our purpose also has a long-term orientation: We look about 50 years into the future and ask, "Why is it good that we do things the way we do? And where should this lead?"
W&V: Change usually also triggers resistance. How did you deal with this and what role did the agency Design Bridge and Partners play?
Holger Schubert: There are always phases in a change project where some struggles happen in the background. The agency acts as a moderator or conductor, offering an unbiased view and ensuring that no one gets lost in the details. The agency’s role can be especially central during these phases. It helps when you know each other and have been working together for a long time, as we have. When it comes to resistance, you need to ask where it comes from and how to develop a common understanding.
W&V: Internally, you can work very specifically to ensure that the purpose is understood and implemented. You have people in the organisation that can implement the internal campaign. Externally, this is much more difficult. Aviation has a negative climate image and causes around 4%of global CO2 emissions. In the city of The Hague, OOH advertisements for all products based on fossil fuels have just been banned. How do you manage to convince people that aviation can get better?
Holger Schubert: With a lot of patience. In the end, it's about creating the relevant facts, providing evidence, and convincing people with it. We need to take action as an entire industry. In a qualitative study we conducted, we found that people have a clear understanding of sustainability. Interestingly, people do not expect a company like Airbus to be so proactive in this area. This is a huge opportunity for us. Market research also shows that we can quickly achieve a positive shift in people's opinions when they find out what we are currently achieving.
W&V: But you still have a lot to do in communication because this opinion is probably not yet widely spread.
Holger Schubert: We can’t assume that we will convince all our colleagues from the NGOs when we present our plans. There will always be polarising opinions and that is part of an open democratic system. But there is a considerable amount of people who initially have concerns, but we gain trust and relevance when they understand that something truly sustainable is happening at Airbus. In the end, here too, the facts matter and - as I said - we must continue to create them.
The Airbus purpose was developed together with Design Bridge and Partners. From the beginning, it was clear that existing sustainability initiatives should be bundled under one common roof. On the other hand, the new purpose should shape the culture, internally and externally: "We wanted employees to enjoy working at Airbus because there is a clear future direction of the company. This can be very motivating for employees. Externally, it is about the clear, formulated will to be fit for the future. This creates a great differentiation from the competition," says Martin Steinacker, Executive Creative Director at Design Bridge and Partners.
It was particularly important for the agency to develop a purpose that would be easily communicated and work well across all levels of the company. "We pioneer sustainable aerospace for a safe and united world’ is broad enough to include all business areas (Commercial Aircraft, Helicopters, Defence and Space, etc.) and specific enough to be tangible," says Christina Blache, who accompanied the project as Executive Strategy Director at Design Bridge and Partners.
First published in German in W&V. Photograph copyright: Thomas Wieland, Munich