The so-called ecological footprint makes the sustainability of services and products visible over their entire life cycle. Ten years ago, the European Commission initiated the development of a corresponding methodology to create comparability and enable a ranking at this point. The result are the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR).
While the operation of drones represents an attractive alternative to traditional technologies and methods, especially in terms of reducing climate-damaging emissions, the overall environmental footprint of the transportation carrier is often still quite vague. In the context of the expected increase in UAS traffic, the PEFCR draft for delivery drones has now been developed and published for comment by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
The topic of sustainability of drones and eVTOLs is also a central component of the current expansion of the Innovative Air Mobility Hub. The online platform was created by EASA to support the establishment of an active and well-connected IAM ecosystem.