ACI News

GENEVA, 31 March 2009 –At the opening session of the 4th Aviation & Environment Summit in Geneva, Airports Council International Director General Angela Gittens states, “At last year’s Summit, I witnessed the signing of the industry Declaration which signalled our commitment to a carbon neutral future for aviation. I am pleased to declare that airports are upholding that commitment.

“Communities have increasingly demanded that airports join them in their efforts to pursue environmental sustainability. In addition to climate change mitigation actions that generate energy savings and increase the usage of alternative fuels, airports are taking action on a wide spectrum of environmental solutions including noise reduction, recycling, wildlife management and compatible land use.”

Several airports are also participating in the Summit programme. Airport executives from Athens, Kuala Lumpur, Montreal, San Francisco, and Zurich will present their initiatives, which serve as best practice models for other airports worldwide. Many projects enlist collaborative efforts from aviation partners – air navigation service providers and airlines – to streamline operations and traffic flow and thus help achieve significant emissions reductions and heightened performance. At the same time, ACI and its airports are working with national, supranational and international bodies to establish policies and the economic frameworks that will strengthen these efforts worldwide.

In support of the Summit Declaration commitment, ACI World and two of the Regions (Europe and North America) have launched key initiatives to help airports define and achieve greater efficiencies. ACI World is putting together universal guidance material in 2009, providing common definitions and an overarching framework that includes a compendium of best practices models.

In the coming months, ACI Europe will launch its Airport Carbon Accreditation scheme which focuses on CO2 emissions from airport operations and features a staged approach and a means of verifying progress. The scheme framework is comprised of a number of levels including measurement and inventory, reductions of emissions, influencing sources outside of the direct control of the airports, and ultimately offsetting outstanding emissions to achieve carbon neutral status.

More recently, ACI North America adopted 13 ambitious airport environmental goals with milestones covering air and water quality, climate change, energy consumption, noise, as well as waste management. Examples of the goals included are performing inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, equipping loading bridges with pre-conditioned power and air, and conversion to low emission airport vehicles.

Gittens highlights three focus areas for future progress. The first is to reduce congestion by ensuring adequate infrastructure, gaining community support for investment and permissions to build. The second is to work closely with airlines and other aviation partners to make better use of existing infrastructure, for example by scheduling a balanced traffic flow throughout the day and giving airports a stronger role in this process. And the third is to make creative use of economic incentives to reward early adopters of new technologies and clean operations, not only for fuel efficiencies but also for noise and air quality, so that the communities served can benefit for our efficiency gains as well.

Gittens comments, “Airports serve a complex set of stakeholders at local, national and international levels – each with their own perspective and sometimes with very divergent demands. Airports will continue to implement forward looking solutions that balance the community’s requirements for service and compatibility. We share a common motivation to reap the rewards of excellent environmental stewardship recognising that long term sustainability is in the best interests of all.