As the global demand for air service continues to surge, Airports Council International (ACI) World today emphasized that airports should continue to reduce their environmental footprint in support of the sustainable growth of aviation.
Welcoming delegates at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Seminar on Green Airports, held in cooperation with ACI, recently in Lima, Peru, ACI Deputy Director General Michael Rossell highlighted the concrete steps ACI and its members have been taking to becoming green through the Airport Carbon Accreditation programme, and other measures.
“In the last decade, ACI members have worked very hard to reduce airports’ environmental footprint,” said Michael Rossell. “This has been achieved predominately through the ACI Airport Carbon Accreditation programme, which helps airports assess and reduce their carbon footprint and that of their stakeholders.
Another tool for airports is the ACI Airport Carbon Emission Reporting Tool v.5.1 (ACERT), initially designed on behalf of Transport Canada, which enables any airport to measure and manage their CO2 emissions even airports that do not have an environmental expert on staff. The outputs from ACERT can then be used as a basis for application to the ACI Airport Carbon Accreditation programme.
Further, the recently released Airport Ground Energy Systems Simulator (AGES-S) enables airports to quantify the environmental and economic benefits of reducing the use of aircraft auxiliary power units by replacing them with a ground-based energy system. The tool was designed by Zurich Airport to help our members create business cases for investment.