Airport profile: Cork
Events: Airports Innovate
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Green thinking!
Editor, Joe Bates, considers how aviation’s attitude towards protecting the environment and the sustainable development of airports has evolved over the years.
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since I started work at Heathrow press agency Brenard’s back in 1982. Times and attitudes have changed and people now think very differently about many things, arguably none more so than the environment.
As I believe I may have noted before, 40 years ago, aviation’s impact on the environment and the sustainable development of airports wasn’t really big on the global agenda.
Yes, there were one or too high-profile demonstrations against the opening of new airports and airport noise has always been an issue, but nitty gritty operational matters like CO2 emissions, deicing chemicals getting into local water systems, waste recycling (food and water) and energy consumption rarely cropped up in everyday conversations.
Back then, I suppose, most of us had never heard of greenhouse gases let alone knew what they were, or realised the damage being done to the planet through burning fossil fuels and other activities such as cutting down forests and farming.
I believe that the non-noise related ‘environmental’ penny first started to drop for aviation in the late 1980s/early 1990s, since when airports across the globe have increasingly become more focused on reducing their impact on the environment and sustainable development to effectively earn their licence to grow.
For me, initiatives such as the the building of a bridge for migrating moose at Oslo’s Gardemoen Airport (OSL); Pittsburgh Airport (PIT) turning food waste into fertiliser; Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall (BWI) and Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) converting cooking oil into renewable fuels; and Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport’s recent harnessing of geothermal energy to heat and cool its facilities are fantasic examples of airports going the extra mile on sustainability.
The 602 accredited airports in ACI’s Airport Cabon Accreditation programme, including the 19 to achieve the top Level 5 status (Amsterdam Schiphol; Stockholm Arlanda; Bengaluru-Kempegowda; Beja; Christchurch; Delhi-Indira Gandhi; Eindhoven; Madeira; Gothenburg; Ivalo; Kuusamo; Kittilä; Malmö; Naples; Ponta Delgada; Ronneby; Rotterdam The Hague; Rovaniemi; and Toulon Hyères) have also helped raise the sustainability bar to new heights.
And there are, of course, thousands of other examples of pioneering airport sustainable projects worth highlighting, but I just don’t have the space in this column. We do, however, do our best to look at quite a few of the latest developments in the ‘sustainable development’ themed section of this issue of Airport World.
ACI World’s senior director for environmental protection and sustainability, Jennifer Desharnais, introduces the themed section by explaining how ACI World is guiding airports in their decarbonisation and noise management journeys.
The themed section also contains features about sustainable master plannning; Aeroporti di Roma’s green financial strategy; Christchurch Airport’s status as one of the greenest airports on the planet; and Portland International Airport’s new earthquake resistant terminal.
We turn the spotlight on Cork Airport in our main airport feature. It may be small, but it is hugely ambitious, has a clear sustainable development plan and a growing route network.
This edition also includes a comprehensive review of the recent Airports Innovate conference in Rome; and features about megahubs; the security checkpoint of the future; enhancing operations through AI; and Copenhagen Airport’s AIRHART Total Airport Management (TAM) solution.
Elsewhere in the issue we reflect on sustainability from a human perspective in our regular ‘people matters’ column; and report on the latest news from ACI World and the regions as well as the association’s World Business Partners (WBP).
Another cracking issue I hope you’ll agree. Happy holidays and I look forward to catching up with you all in 2025!