Finavia aiming for net zero emissions by 2025

The standout objective of Finavia’s newly published responsibility programme is to reduce the carbon emissions of Finland’s airports to net zero by the end of 2025.

Talking about its new ‘Towards sustainable air travel’ initiative, Finavia’s vice president for sustainability and the environment, Mikko Viinikainen, enthused: “Operations at all our airports have been carbon neutral since 2019.

“We have taken practical measures and we have been able to reduce carbon emissions by 64% compared to ten years ago. Next, we aim for our airports to have net zero emissions.”

Finavia said that it will reduce its carbon emissions as low as is technologically and financially feasible, meaning very close to zero.

“Our objective is to reduce our carbon emissions by 98% over the next three years. At net zero level, there will still remain a couple of per cent points worth of emissions,” noted Viinikainen.

The plan is to reach net zero level as early as next year at four airports in Lapland: Rovaniemi, Kittilä, Ivalo and Kuusamo. In 2024, Helsinki Airport will follow. The goal is for all of Finavia’s airports to reach net zero by the end of 2025.

All electricity that Finavia uses has already been 100% wind and solar energy for several years. Airport maintenance vehicles are filled up with renewable diesel made from waste and leftovers.

“In order to reach net zero, we are moving to the use of renewable motor fuel oil in our machinery. Currently, about half of our airports are heated using renewable energy, but the plan is also to only use renewable energy for heating,” added Viinikainen.

In order to neutralise the remaining carbon emissions, Finavia is participating in projects that capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. These include projects such as growing forest in areas where there is none. Finavia’s projects meet the criteria of the international Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) programme.

Its new responsibility programme guides decision-making and the activities of both management and personnel. It is based on the three pillars of human well-being, sustainable air traffic and good governance and fiscal responsibility.

“We aim to promote the social, financial and environmental responsibility of our business operations. In addition, we want to be involved in boosting the responsibility of the entire air traffic value chain,” admitted  Viinikainen.