Growing up on Cape Cod, Bella Horstmann ’16 loved everything about the ocean. She learned to scuba dive in middle school and spent high school and college planning to become a marine biologist.

      Her career focus has since shifted from the sea to the sky—although her passion for environmental protection hasn’t changed.

      Today, she runs JetBlue Airways’ sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) program, leading efforts to procure alternative fuels for the airline’s fleet.

      “I am lucky to feel like I am making an impact every single day,” Horstmann says. “With every molecule of SAF that I procure and every partnership I create, I’m directly avoiding carbon from being emitted into the atmosphere and actually making a difference in terms of our greenhouse gas emissions.”

      Horstmann earned a bachelor’s degree in marine science and biology from the University of Miami. After graduation, she worked for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution—a leading ocean science nonprofit—studying sharks and how climate change impacts coastal communities.

      It should have been a dream job. But she found herself feeling impatient with the slow pace of academic research and itching to more directly tackle climate change. “I felt this climate anxiety, candidly,” Horstmann says.

      Horstmann knew some energy-intensive industries are particularly hard to decarbonize, such as aviation, steelmaking, and chemical manufacturing. She decided she could have the impact she was seeking if she worked to shift one of those industries away from fossil fuels. 

      So she went back to school, earning a master’s degree in sustainability management from Columbia University. An internship with JetBlue in 2023 led to her current role as head of the company’s SAF program.

      SAF is a biofuel made from renewable products such as agricultural waste and used cooking oil. The raw materials are refined, blended with conventional petroleum-based fuel and pumped into planes using existing airport infrastructure.

      Sustainable alternatives can cut jet fuel carbon emissions by 80% on a lifecycle basis, Horstmann says. But SAF accounts for less than 1% of jet fuel used globally, mostly because it costs up to three times as much as conventional fuels.

      Still, SAF use is growing. JetBlue started using sustainable fuels in 2020 and has, on average, doubled its use of such fuels every year since then, Horstmann says. The airline’s planes now fuel with a SAF blend at three U.S. airports and some airports overseas.

      Horstmann divides her time between selecting SAF suppliers and seeking creative ways to cover the cost of sustainable fuels, such as by partnering with eco-conscious companies or asking passengers to donate to help support SAF use.

      “I love that I’m doing something new every day when it comes to SAF at JetBlue,” Horstmann says. “Shifting airlines away from fossil fuels is an immense global challenge, and working in a nascent industry can be challenging.”

      But Horstmann says she loves being able to use her scientific and business skills to make a difference.

      And for anyone wondering, she still scuba dives whenever she can.