Airport News

Airport News

Paris-Orly and Paris-Charles de Gaulle airports have had their carbon accreditation certificate renewed by ACI Europe.

The airports council renewed level three of the accreditation for Paris-Orly and Paris-Charles de Gaulle, which have been involved in the certification programme since 2010, for their continued efforts in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Paris-Le Bourget Airport also had its level two accreditation certificate renewed.

Aeroports de Paris, which owns and operates the Paris-based airports, received the accreditation certificates on behalf of the airports. Didier Hamon, group general secretary, with responsibility for the environment, said, “These certificates are testament to our ongoing efforts to reduce the emissions related to our own power consumption and also the fruition of the work we have been doing with our partners. We are fully in line with our commitments to reduce our CO2 emissions by 25% between 2009 and 2015.”

Several large-scale projects involving renewable energy sources have recently contributed to the further limitation of emissions. Paris-Charles de Gaulle commissioned a biomass plant late last year, which will eventually generate 25% of the heating needs of the airport.

This year, Paris-Charles de Gaulle also commissioned a photovoltaic plant or “solar farm” covering a total area of 4000m² that will annually produce 157MWh of electricity, to be directly fed into the Aeroports de Paris network. The equipment will help save seven tonnes of CO2 per year. Aeroports de Paris said it also intendeds to acquire 200 electric vehicles between now and 2015.

ACI Europe is the European branch of the global trade association of airport managers Airport Council International (ACI). ACI Europe’s Airport Carbon Accreditation programme independently assesses and recognises airports’ efforts to manage and reduce their CO2 emissions. It certifies airports at four different levels of accreditation (Mapping, Reduction, Optimisation and Neutrality).